Freedom Series 4: The Last Obstacle
by Nail Strafer
Summary: During a lull in Robotnik's attacks, Sonic and his friends decide to go on a vacation. However, trouble starts when a group of bounty hunters appears, seemingly determined to capture them...
1. Prologue: Too Easy?

**Before we get to the story, I've got some disclaimers I'd like to issue: **

**- All official characters and locations belong to Sega and Sonic team. Otherwise, all characters and locations belong to me. **

**- Those of you who've read Freedom Series 3 may note a large leap from this story to the last one. That's because the Sonic Movie occurs between this fanfic and the last one. I suppose you could kind of consider the Sonic Movie to be Freedom Series 3 ½ in my chronology. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, don't worry. You'll learn all the important stuff that you'll need to know about it in Chapter 1. **

**- While we're on the subject of stuff you need to know to understand the plot, I've written this story so that you can understand what's going on even if you haven't read any of my previous fanfics. Although, to get the full enjoyment out of this fanfic, reading Freedom Series 1-3 is highly recommended. **

**- Now that we've got those things out of the way, enjoy the story!**

**FREEDOM SERIES 4: THE LAST OBSTACLE**

**Prologue: Too Easy? **

**August 1st, 2316 – 4:00 PM – Citnalta, Naeco**

"Come on! Hurry it up! They're coming!"

"Move goddammit! We're gonna die!"

"Get that truck off the road! It's blocking the way!"

Similar cries were going up all over the place, as literally thousands of cars inched down the Lorac Highway Bridge going across the ocean. In the background, the city of Citnalta burned as Robotnik's soldiers attacked it. Amidst the shouting, horns blared, and the sound of gunfire and explosions thundered in the distance. People who'd given up on trying to drive out of town grabbed what they could hold in their hands, and took off running down the clogged bridge between the jam of cars and trucks.

An atmosphere of terror, anger, and confusion pervaded the entire area, affecting everyone that was in it. Despite the advance warning from the authorities that Robotnik was planning to attack the city, nobody seemed to be prepared for the invasion. Now those who had lagged behind were paying for it dearly, as they were getting caught in the middle of the fighting.

A thundering noise assaulted the people's ears, as Robotnik troop transports flew over the expressway. Their bright lights blinded people who tried to look up at them. The ships resembled nothing so much as giant black bird predators, preparing to snatch up their prey. A chorus of screams went up, as more people abandoned their cars and started running.

Robotic foot soldiers started to jump out of the drop ships. One landed on top of a green sedan, completely crushing the roof and the family of cats inside it. Others fell on top of people, and their weaker flesh and blood bodies quickly gave way to the more solid metal bodies of the soldiers.

Even as each soldier started to fall, they were already readying their laser rifles. Soon, the entire bridge was a light show of white stun beams flying everywhere. Many were gunned down instantly, and most of the ones lucky enough to survive the first wave of fire quickly weren't so lucky the next time. People leaped off the bridge into the water to get away, but it was hopeless. The soldiers on the bridges picked off the swimmers easily.

Adding further to the chaos, one of the drop ships fired a cannon volley at the bridge itself, sending up a huge explosion. Cars, cement, and people blasted up into the air amidst the flames, as an entire section of the bridge collapsed into the sea. Great plumes of water flew up, swamping anyone who was trying to swim away from the chaos.

But then suddenly, one of the drop ships exploded, and fell into the water. Everyone, including the robots, turned to look up and see what had caused the disruption. Another aircraft could be heard approaching in the distance, but this one seemed to be helping the civilians instead of attacking them.

Even with the Land of Darkness' perpetually dark skies, the aircraft started to become visible. A blue and yellow biplane appeared amidst the dark clouds, the noise of its engine seemingly filling the air as it got closer and closer. An emblem of two tails was visible on the tail wing, in addition to the word "SONIC" stenciled across the rear of the plane. Cheers rose up among the people as they recognized who was coming.

"Look! It's Sonic and Tails!"

"We're saved!"

"You robots are all dead now!"

The biplane fired off a series of yellow lasers, and they struck the side of another drop ship. The transport exploded in a geyser of flame and debris, before plunging into the bay below. Laser fire from the drop ships turned away from the people, and focused instead upon the new target.

The biplane went into a barrel roll, dodging all of the shots like they weren't even there. In response to the attack, twin streaks of white smoke flew away from the aircraft, streaking towards two more of the troop carriers. About seven seconds later, they were nothing but burning hunks of metal plunging downward to the water.

"All right Tails!" Sonic shouted out, as he stood on the top wing of the plane, looking back at his fox friend. "Great work!"

"Thanks Sonic!" Tails said, giving a thumbs up.

"Don't take all the fun though!" the hedgehog replied. "Drop me off on the bridge! I wanna do some of the fighting too!"

"Roger!" Tails replied, flying lower.

Meanwhile, Sonic unstrapped his feet from the plane's wing, as he prepared to jump. Tails was now flying directly above the Lorac Highway Bridge at a frightening speed.

Sonic wasn't phased in the least though, as he turned around and nonchalantly said, "See ya later Tails! Good luck!"

"You too Sonic!" Tails said back.

The hedgehog leaped off of the plane, going into a somersault. Even as he landed, he plowed right through his first soldier robot, shearing the machine in half.

"Thanks Mr. Sonic!" someone said.

Sonic turned around to see a young brown collie, looking no older than ten, smiling at him. The hedgehog smiled back.

"No problem!" Sonic replied. "Now hurry up and get out of here!"

"But my mom and dad are trapped over there!" the kid shouted, as he pointed at a large motor home in the middle of the road.

Two soldiers were firing inside the vehicle through the windshield, while another was trying to break in through the side door. Sonic looked back at the kid.

"I'll save them! Be right back!"

Sonic jumped up on top of an abandoned car.

Shouting, he said, "Hey morons! Don't you know that breaking and entering is illegal?"

All three of the soldiers turned away from the motor home and fired at Sonic. However, even before they fired the first shot, the hedgehog had already jumped down. The robot trying to break in through the side door quickly met his end, as Sonic smashed cleanly through his head. The other two soldiers ran around to the side to catch up with Sonic. However, by the time they got around to the side, Sonic had already run all the way around the vehicle and run them through from the back.

He then jumped into the motor home through the broken windshield, his feet crunching on the broken glass.

"Hey! I got rid of the robots!" he called out. "You can come out now!"

Two collies opened the bedroom door at the rear, looking immensely relieved. These two were definitely the parents of that kid Sonic had just seen. The mother's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wow! We just got saved by Sonic!"

The father just let out a sigh.

"I've had enough excitement for one day... Where's our boy?"

"You mean me dad?" the boy said, as he climbed in through the window.

"Son! You're okay!"

The family of three quickly hugged.

"Hey! Get out of here!" Sonic shouted. "There's probably more robots on the way!"

"You're right," the father said. "Let's get out of here, everyone."

The three collies barged past Sonic and ran out the door.

"Thanks again Mr. Sonic!" the boy said, as they left through the side door.

"Anytime kid!"

Sonic stepped out of the vehicle, and one second later a roaring explosion engulfed the entire motor home. The hedgehog was sent flying through the air, smashing into the guardrail on the side of the bridge. Sonic cried out in pain, as he curled his arms around his body to soothe his injuries.

Rolling to a stand, he looked to see what had caused the blast. A huge, black tank rumbled down the bridge in the opposite direction, crushing through the cars as if they were made of nothing more than paper. The tank paused for a moment, adjusting its aim to target Sonic, and then it fired. The shell landed between a pickup truck and a hatchback, causing both of them to go up in a roaring fireball. Fire spread to other vehicles in the area, which set off their gas tanks as well. The flames now covered one entire section of the bridge, blocking Sonic from getting to the tank. Or so the tank's driver thought.

Sonic jumped up on top of a semi parked nearby, and used the long trailer as a runway to build up some speed. He easily jumped across the roaring flames, and landed on the other side. The tank moved its gun to aim at Sonic, although the hedgehog was far too fast and the gun far too slow. Sonic jumped and went into a spin, flying straight towards the cannon's barrel.

Sonic cried out in pain, for the metal was too strong to break through. The hedgehog landed on his feet, and rubbed his head to soothe the pain. After a moment, he looked up and saw that while he didn't smash through the barrel, he did manage to bend it rather nicely. Sonic grinned, as an idea entered his head.

He moved to stand in front of the tank, and shouted, "Hey! Take your best shot! Right here!"

The tank complied, and fired a round. Unfortunately, since the barrel was bent, the shell couldn't get out, and so detonated as it hit the bent portion of the cannon. The ensuing explosion caused the entire top part of the tank to explode, sending metal shards flying everywhere. Smirking, Sonic dashed past the tank to take on his next opponent.

**Up in the air…**

Meanwhile, Tails had gotten the attention of Robotnik's jet fighters, although he wasn't worried. They were no match for the speed and maneuverability of the new Tornado 2 biplane. The fox went into a dive, and took off towards the beach at the other end of the city. He was flying so low, that he could see the waves crashing against the shore. It was a beautiful sight, although this was no time to dwell on it. According to his radar, the enemy fighters were right behind him.

Tails pulled back on the stick, sending the plane arrowing straight up into the air. Once he'd gotten significant altitude, the fox sent his plane diving back down towards the water again. Predictably, the jet fighters copied his move. Tails smirked, and engaged the afterburners. The sea below rushed up to meet him at a dizzying speed. At the last second, he pulled up. Tails could actually feel the ocean water spraying past the Tornado 2 for a moment, before the biplane hurtled back up into the air.

One of the jet fighters pursuing him was not so lucky though, as it splashed into the water attempting to imitate his maneuver. The other one was farther back though, and thus managed to avoid crashing like its counterpart. However, Tails was nowhere in sight as it pulled up. The jet's computer did a calculation, trying to determine where the fox could have gone.

Unknown to it, Tails had done a complete loop-de-loop. He flew in right behind the fighter, and unleashed a torrent of laser fire. The engines took the brunt of the attack, disabling them. Without any more power, the fighter plunged downwards into the sea, exploding as it hit the surface.

"Phew! That was great!" Tails said.

He looped back around, heading towards the city. More troop transports were headed for the bridge, and he had to shoot those down before they dumped more soldiers into the mess on the ground.

As he flew past the city, he saw the Freedomian Army was handling itself rather well. While Robotnik had more forces, they were all AI-driven, and even today artificial intelligence was no match for an organic brain.

He noticed the Freedomian Army holding a position on top of a parking garage with soldiers equipped with bazookas. Despite several Robotnik tanks advancing on the garage, the Freedomians had the upper hand. The AI-driven tanks only tried to attack by driving down one large street, which bunched them up nicely into a group. The Freedomian rocket launchers made mince meat of the tanks.

Grinning, Tails carried on back to the Lorac Highway Bridge going over the bay. More drop ships were approaching, although Tails destroyed nearly all of them on the first pass before they could deploy the soldiers within. The only two remaining quickly followed after a second flyby.

Tails grinned at his success, but static spitting forth from the radio cut off his little self-congratulation.

"Come in Miles Prower... Come in... This is the Freedomian Army, over."

Tails quickly picked up the radio. "This is Ta... Miles Prower reporting in, over."

Tails felt rather awkward using his real name, considering he was so used to being referred to by his nickname. Before he had time to mull it over, the person on the other end answered.

"We've secured control of the city, thanks to your and Sonic's help. We've destroyed most of the enemy, and the rest of his forces are on full retreat. Please land at Naeco International Airport for a debriefing."

"Roger, over and out..."

**At the airport...**

As Tails jumped out of his plane, a raccoon dressed in military garb and holding a large rifle came over to meet him.

"Miles Prower?" he asked.

"That's me," Tails said, as he hit the tarmac.

"Come with me. The general wants a word with you."

Tails nodded, and followed after him. He was quickly guided over towards a nearby hangar, where a Great Dane and Sonic were waiting for him. The dog wore a uniform with big rank insignias. Tails remembered his name as General Salt. He and Sonic had met with him several times before, due to them being part of the military as the Sonic Unit. Their late fathers Swift and Kyle had served under him as well. As Tails approached, the general saluted him, and Tails saluted back.

"Excellent work, both of you," he started. "However, there's something else I need to talk to you about. I'm sure you two notice that this attack has been rather similar to other attacks Robotnik has been launching all over the world for the past few months, right?"

"Yeah," Sonic said. "It feels like no real effort was put into this attack, with how quickly it was over. Not to mention, it was pathetically easy to destroy Robotnik's soldiers. I could have taken them on in my sleep."

"Same here," Tails said.

"It's almost like Robotnik's giving up, isn't it?" General Salt said, looking between them.

"Feels that way," Sonic answered. "It's actually getting kind of boring..."

"There wasn't a lot of property damage for such a big battle, and not to mention the loss of life was rather minimal," General Salt added.

"Yeah," Tails said. "It's been like this ever since Metal Sonic was destroyed."

Tails then realized he'd brought up Metal in front of Sonic again, and gave himself a mental kick. He turned to look at Sonic. Fortunately, apart from his eyes narrowing a bit, the hedgehog hardly responded. Tails inwardly sighed in relief.

Most of the time whenever someone mentioned Metal Sonic in front of Sonic, he got really depressed. Then, he started talking about how everyone was wrong when they believed it was best that Metal had been destroyed, because Sonic said he'd become good right before his death.

Putting aside the thoughts, Tails turned his attention back to the debriefing and General Salt's voice.

"You know," he started. "We could have probably handled this battle even without your help. The attack was that poor."

"Do you think Robotnik really has given up?" Tails asked.

General Salt shrugged. "I dunno what's going on in his head right now, but he won't be getting anywhere like this."

He gave a thin smile to the two of them.

"Anyway, you two can go on now if you like. We can handle the cleanup from here."

"Are you sure?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah... It'll be fine. We're bringing in supplies and doctors right now."

Sonic turned to Tails and smiled.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Sure," Tails replied.

"Let's go then."

The two walked back across the airfield, towards the Tornado 2. Tails had a feeling of uneasiness though, now that the debriefing was over. It just wasn't like Robotnik to be so unenthusiastic about his battles. Had they really broken his spirit that badly after defeating Metal Sonic? Or was he planning something else? Whatever it was, Tails wanted to know about it, but he wouldn't be getting any answers soon, and that frustrated him.

Oh well. He'd have plenty of time to think it over. It wasn't like they would have much else to do once they got back to the hideout...


	2. Chapter 1: Red Herring

**Chapter 1: Red Herring **

**August 24th, 2316 – 5:30 AM – Elona Wilderness **

The quiet darkness of the night settled across the outskirts of Elona, an area of the country hailed as beautiful for being made up of a chain of floating islands floating in a sea of clouds. While the islands felt quite heavenly due to being in a big open sky above white fluffy clouds, the divine feeling was enhanced even further by the stars sparkling overhead in the skies tonight.

Soon though, the stars began to fade away, as the dark blue turned a shade lighter to the east. A short time later, the sun emerged from within the lightening sky, and the clouds went from being a pale blue in the moonlight to turning their usual cotton white. The sun then started on its daily journey across the sky, as its light touched everything that it could reach. Eventually, the light settled upon one certain island. After slinking across the mountaintops and the massive lake on the island, it came to rest on a house made out of a pile of scrap metal and abandoned vehicles, built into a cliff side at the lake's shore.

The sunlight filtered in through Sonic's bedroom window, and it began to flow across his face. He squinted his eyes shut, not wanting to be woken up yet, and pulled the sheet over his head to block out more of the light. Eventually though, the light got so intense that he just couldn't keep it back anymore, and so he started to climb out of bed. With a sigh, he flung the covers aside and brought his feet around.

Putting his feet on the floor, Sonic sat up and started to rub his eyes with his hands. Now that he thought about it though, he wasn't really that unhappy about waking up this early. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep, what with all of his dreams about Metal Sonic tormenting him every night. He'd been having them every so often ever since the robot's destruction.

While Metal Sonic had done horrible things, like destroy several cities including his old hometown of Forest Town, he'd also been programmed based upon Sonic's life data. That meant he had been programmed with basically everything in Sonic's brain, including his knowledge, likes, dislikes, and personality.

The source material for his programming had actually been his downfall in their last battle. Tails made a device out of a navigator Robotnik had created, and used the new invention to bring out the positive side of Sonic's personality. Thus, Metal Sonic suddenly abandoned his goal of trying to destroy the Land of the Sky, and even went out of his way to save the President and his aide Oliver "Old Man" Owl.

After that though...

**Three months ago…**

_"Sonic!" Tails cried out. "What are you doing? Stop!" _

_Sonic slid down a hill towards a lava pit, where the remains of Metal Sonic sat at the edge of the molten rock. He had fallen there after a power failure, after saving the President and his owl friend. Sonic brought himself to a halt almost within arms reach of the robot._

"_Grab my hand!" he shouted, as he extended his arm. _

_However, someone grabbed him from behind and started pulling him back._

"_Don't do it Sonic!" Knuckles shouted. He was the one trying to drag him away. _

_Metal slowly crawled up towards Sonic, due to his legs being ripped off. However, as soon as he could reach Sonic's hand, he slapped it aside. Sonic gasped in surprise. _

"_There is only one Sonic," Metal simply said. The molten lava began to melt his body._

"_No!" Sonic screamed, struggling harder to reach for Metal. _

"_No Sonic! He'll drag you under with him!"_

_Despite his efforts, it was too late. The lava began to cover up Metal's body, melting it in the process. His burning red eyes winked out as it too slipped below the surface. Metal Sonic was gone... _

**In the present...**

Sonic lost an ally, and now everyone thought he was crazy for being so upset about it. They all acted like Metal Sonic was the enemy even at his death, and he was already in his best place at the bottom of that cooled lava.

A yawn rose up from the other side of the room. Sonic looked to see Tails asleep in his own bed nearby. The fox's eyes softly opened too as the sunlight moved over his face, and finally they drifted open. He smiled when he saw Sonic.

"Morning Sonic," he said.

Putting aside his thoughts about Metal for the moment, Sonic smiled back.

"Good morning Tails," Sonic said. "What're we gonna do for breakfast today?"

"I dunno...what do you say we just go down and see what we've got?"

"All right then."

After slipping out of bed and putting on their shoes and gloves, the two walked out of the bedroom, past the bathroom and into the study. This was no ordinary house though, because their house was actually a scrapped 747. Their bedroom was the cockpit, and the first class area of the plane had been converted into a bathroom and a study, with a hallway going past the two of them. As they walked downstairs they entered the coach area of the plane, the front half of which had been converted into a kitchen.

The Freedomian military gave them this place two years ago. The reason was because that's whenSonic and Tailshad become a tiny, but nonetheless important, branch of the army, dedicated to defeating Robotnik and his empire. Their branch had simply been named the "Sonic Unit", and their unit was quite good at what it did, despite only being made up of Sonic and Tails (and occasionally their friend Knuckles). Because of them, Robotnik's schemes to take overPlanet Freedom had always been thwarted, since his last known headquarters was destroyed two years ago.

_Metal Sonic was a pretty close call though, _Sonic thought._ It's the closest Robotnik's ever gotten to winning in years. While this job was really cool at first, now it's just getting boring. Apart from Metal Sonic, almost nothing really dangerous has happened. Sometimes Ithink the government is gonna stop funding us, since they don't need us that bad. I mean...Robotnik hasn't even attacked anywhere since Citnalta, and that was weeks ago. _

With a sigh, Sonic opened up the refrigerator door. A variety of foods sat inside. In the end, Sonic decided he'd have eggs over easy, pancakes, and a side of bacon. While he pulled out the necessary ingredients, he noticed Tails over to the side pulling a box of cereal out of a cabinet. The brand was M's Munchies, as usual. Tails just adored that cereal, even though it wasn't much else besides marshmallow and grain Ms. Sonic wondered why Tails wasn't sick of even after all this time.

Tails grabbed a carton of milk, as Sonic cracked the eggs and dumped the yolks into the skillet. With little to do out here, Sonic had learned how to be a reasonably good cook. He'd actually learned how to prepare other things besides chilidogs too. Tails had learned some as well, although he still preferred cereal at breakfast.

As Tails poured the milk into his cereal, he decided he'd start up a conversation with Sonic.

"Hey Sonic," Tails said.

"What is it Tails?" Sonic said, busy with his eggs.

"How're you today?"

"Eh...I'm all right I guess. Not much has happened lately and I'm feeling kind of bored."

"Oh, I see. Already bored of your new rock and roll CD?"

"Yeah...I've been listening to it so much I hate the songs now. I need some new CDs. But, look at you! You've been eating that M's Munchies cereal for breakfast every day for years... Don't you ever get tired of it?"

"Nope!" Tails said with a laugh. "I'll never get bored of it!"

Suddenly, Tails began to sing out the commercial's song, without even realizing it. The fox even started dancing around a bit to imitate the blue fox that was the mascot for the cereal.

"'M, T...M, T, P! What's that spell? MTP! M's Munchies is the best cereal there will ever be!'"

"Tails!" Sonic growled. "Please don't sing that stupid song. I get enough of it on the TV all the time."

"Oh," Tails said, coming to a stop. "Sorry about that Sonic."

Sonic sighed. "Thank you..."

Tails moved back over to the table,sitting in front ofhis cereal. After he took his first spoonful of it, he turned to Sonic to ask a question.

"I heard you turning around in bed last night, and mumbling. I thought I heard you say 'Metal' too."

"Eh...it's nothing Tails."

"No it isn't Sonic," Tails said, a little firmer. "I know you're thinking about Metal again."

Sonic let out a sigh, and whirled around to face Tails.

"All right, I admit it."

"Are you ever gonna stop thinking about him? He's just a robot, and not really a person."

"I think different Tails. I think he could have been a great help since he went good."

"Well I just think that's nuts Sonic. I mean, yeah, he saved the President and that owl in the end when I brought out your personality. But what if Robotnik came up with a way to get Metal's programming going back to the way it was? He's a machine, and machines don't really have feelings. They just do what they're told to do, and they don't care who gets hurt."

Sonic let out a 'hmph', and returned to cooking his meal. Sonic spoke to Tails as he started cooking his bacon.

"You'll never understand Tails. You just won't. I know there's something more to Metal than what meets the eye."

Tails sighed, but then he reached inside the cabinet where he'd gotten his cereal, and pulled out three slips of paper.

"Tada!" Tails yelled, holding them in his hands triumphantly.

"Eh?" Sonic mumbled, eyeing the mysterious paper. "What are those?"

"These are tickets to the Grakoran Tournament!"

Sonic's eyes widened.

"The Grakoran Tournament? You mean that big athletics tournament that they have every ten years?"

"Yup...it's the one that the Tneicnans started thousands of years ago. What do you say? President Rudot gave these to us as a gift for all we've done. These are the premium passes for all of the events! He even gave us an extra ticket if we want to bring a friend along!"

"Really?" Sonic said with a smile. "That sounds great to me. I mean, it's not like we're doing much out here right now."

"Yeah..." Tails said. "I don't think Robotnik'll try anything while we're gone. He hasn't done anything since the start of August, at Citnalta."

"Uh huh...it's been all quiet around Robotropolis too. I don't think that'll change anytime soon..."

"Yeah...I guess you're right. So when does the Grakoran Tournament start?"

"It begins September the first, about a week from now."

"Oh really? Great!"

Sonic felt relieved. Staying around here was driving him crazy, since there was almost nothing to do without battles to fight. Maybe he just needed a little time away to clear his thoughts, and get straightened out again. It would surely do him a world of good in any case.


	3. Chapter 2: Gathering of Friends

**Chapter 2: Gathering of Friends**

**September 1st, 2316 – 4:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

Sonic and Tails would have used the Tornado biplane to reach the tournament, but unfortunately it had been blown up by Robotnik during the last battle with Metal Sonic. So, in the months since then, Tails had constructed a replacement plane he called the Tornado 2, painted blue and yellow instead of red and silver. All in all, the new plane was a much smoother and faster ride than the old one, but Sonic felt rather sad over losing the old Tornado. It was one of the last mementos he had of his late father Swift. There wasn't much of anything left of his dad now.

Regardless, they were now using the Tornado 2 to reach the festival, with Sonic riding on the wing and Tails flying, as usual. The long flight really grated on Sonic's nerves, since he had to keep moving, and he couldn't do that on this plane. At long last though, Nedlo emerged into view.

"All right!" Sonic cheered. "We're finally here!"

"The capital city of Tneicna," Tails said, smiling. "And the place where they always hold the Grakoran Tournament."

Sonic sighed.

"Too bad it looks like everyone else on the planet had the same idea as we did for a vacation. Look down below."

Literally tens of thousands of tents stood in the fields and forests surrounding the city, all of them easy to spot due to their bright colors contrasting with the dark greens of the foliage. The entire area around Nedlo looked like a virtual tent city from here.

"Well this is a big event Sonic," Tails said. "I mean, they only hold the Grakoran Tournament once every ten years, and it's a huge celebration for the entire planet. So of course tons of people would be here. I've read about it in books and stuff."

"Pssh...whatever," Sonic muttered, shrugging. "Still doesn't stop it from being annoying."

"It's still amazing to look at though, isn't it? The real thing is nothing next to pictures in books."

"Yeah it is Tails..." Sonic said, gazing out across the fields of tents and the huge city beyond. "You know, my parents brought me to this when I was five, but I was too little to remember a lot of what happened. This is pretty much a new experience for me."

"Well...since we're up in the air right now, think you could try to look for a good camping spot?"

"Heh heh, no need Tails," Sonic laughed. "Carrie's offered to let us stay with her while we're here."

"Carrie?" Tails asked, his voice laden with happiness. "Really? I can't wait to see her!"

"Yeah...it's been months."

Two years ago, Sonic and Tails had befriended a white wolf named Carrie Strafer. However, at the time there had been two gunmen trying to kill her. With the help of Knuckles, who they'd just met at the time, they managed to capture the two of them at Rotisiv, Nedlo, before they could carry out their contract. Afterwards, the police had taken care of them, but the two gunmen mysteriously vanished from the jail that night, never to be heard from again. It sometimes worried Sonic to think that they might be hunting for Carrie again, but since nobody had heard a peep from them in two years he didn't worry about them anymore.

Anyway, right now Carrie lived and worked at the Brenbar Inn, which was in Nedlo. She worked as a maid who cleaned the guests' rooms, and sometimes Sonic and Tails dropped by to see her.

"Thank goodness Carrie works at that hotel," Sonic said with a grin. "It's a lot better than sleeping outside the city, and not to mention we won't have to travel as far to reach the stadium."

"I know," Tails answered, grinning too.

A few minutes later, the Tornado 2 landed at a makeshift dirt airstrip outside the city, which looked like it had been set up only recently. While the landing had been rough on the packed-down dirt, it was nothing compared to trying to navigate through the madhouse that was the temporary airfield. A lot of people had come this year in their own personal planes, and this place hadn't been designed to hold all of them.

Sonic watched as Tails nervously chewed his lip every time the Tornado 2 came close to hitting another aircraft, while they taxied through the airfield. Finally though, Tails managed to find a parking spot in an overcrowded hangar. The hangar too was also temporary, because it was nothing more than a large tent that looked like it had been hastily assembled only a little while ago.

"I'm glad that's over," Tails declared, killing the plane's engine. "This has got to be the worst airport ever."

"Eh, you can't blame them," Sonic replied. "They only just set it up for this tournament. You know how Tneicnans don't like humans and human machines."

"Yeah…"

Normally, the people of Tneicna shunned human technology as much as possible, since they had feared the humans ever since they arrived on the planet more than a hundred years ago. Around the time the Grakoran Tournament is about to start though, people from all over the world (including technology-rich areas) come to Nedlo. So the Tneicnans temporarily put aside their fears of technology to accommodate people from the other modern nations. One of the things they did this time was set up this rickety airport, according to what Sonic had heard about this festival. After getting their bags out of the Tornado 2's cargo hold, they paid for their parking spot to a nearby attendant. Next, they walked out of the airfield and into the city a short walk away.

If the airport had been a madhouse though, the city was a full-blown riot. The streets were packed to the gills with people, and it was hard to move around with their luggage. Some of the pedestrians were running around with PDAs and cell phones, while others had things like elegant staffs and seals. Furthermore, cars were now sharing their place on the stone streets with old wooden carts. It was rather strange seeing the mix of old and new in the city, especially since the last time they'd been here there was no modern technology at all.

"Hey...look!" Sonic said, raising a finger to point. "There's Carrie's place dead ahead."

A short distance away was the Brenbar Inn. While the hotel was hundreds of years old, it still looked very bright and vibrant. A rosy red color spread out across the exterior walls, and colorful flowers stuck out of pots in the windows. The familiar "Brenbar Inn" sign over the front door squeaked and rattled, as it swayed in the wind.

Sonic smiled, and then turned back to Tails.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Sure, let's go!" Tails answered.

They walked in through the front door and into the lobby, hauling their bags behind them. The same rosy red color on the outside covered the walls on the inside as well. Off to the side stood a large stone fountain, with water gurgling from the top of it into the bottom. A white wolf dressed in a blue robe clipped branches that were too long, off of the plants that were set up next to the fountain.

Once the wolf was done, she put the clippers back in the pocket of an apron she had on over the robe. She admired her work for a moment, before turning around and spotting Sonic and Tails. A huge grin spread across her large muzzle.

"Sonic! Tails!" she called out, running over to them. "It's me, Carrie!"

She towered over both of them by about a foot, taking into account both her age and her species. Sonic didn't mind though, because he just hugged her by the middle. While they were great friends, the hedgehog wasn't exactly her boyfriend or anything. Carrie was more like a big sister figure for the two of them, in the way that Sonic was a big brother figure to Tails.

"It's great to see you again!" Sonic said, backing up so he could look up at her face.

"Likewise," Carrie said with a smile. "You're here to stay for the tournament, aren't you?"

"That's right," Tails said with a grin.

"Well, I'd like to go too..." Carrie's smile faded into a frown. "But I'm afraid I can't go with you. I don't have enough money to even afford the cheapest ticket."

Sonic smiled as he pulled out the extra ticket they'd gotten from the president.

"Don't worry about it," Sonic said, holding the ticket out to Carrie. "This is a premium pass for all events. The President gave us three tickets to this tournament!"

"Wow!" Carrie yelled, gasping in surprise. Speaking very quickly, she asked, "Can I really have it?"

"Sure!" Sonic said, handing it over to her.

"This'll be great!" she said ecstatically, as she took the ticket. "I get to see you again, and I get to go to the tournament too! It couldn't get any better! Anyway, what's say I help you get settled into my room?"

"Sure, that would be great," Sonic answered.

The three of them walked across the lobby, and Carrie opened a wooden door at the back. After walking up the stairs, they were standing in the third-floor corridor. Carrie stepped over to Room 320 at the end of the hallway, and unlocked it with a key. After she stepped in, Sonic and Tails followed up behind her.

The room wasn't especially big or elegant, considering it was more or less just like a standard single bed hotel room. But, considering that Carrie was rather poor, it was quite good for what money she had. Sonic remembered that the owner of the hotel, Mr. Olandra, had given it to her as a reward for saving his life years ago from bandits.

Carrie had done what she could to freshen up this room though. Framing the window looking out on the street below were two elegantly designed curtains, which were covered in stripes of many different colors. Tapestries hung from the walls, displaying various scenes of ancient Tneicna. One of them showed an old queen lemur entertaining others in her court, while another showed a scene of a grand stone mansion. Carrie also had a rose plant in the pot on her windowsill.

"Wow, this place is a lot prettier since we were here last," Tails remarked, as he put down his bag.

"Yeah...how'd you afford those tapestries?" Sonic asked, putting down his own luggage. He stepped over to examine the one featuring the queen and her court.

"Oh, Mr. Olandra gave them to me as a present," Carrie answered. "I like them a lot. They make this place look really cool, don't you think?"

"You're right," Tails said.

"Anyway," Carrie said, motioning towards the bed. "You two can sleep in my bed while you're here. I'll take the couch over there."

Underneath the windowsill was the couch Carrie was talking about. While it didn't look exactly uncomfortable to rest on, Sonic didn't think he'd want to sleep on it for several nights in a row. Sonic looked up at Carrie.

"You sure?" Sonic asked. "You don't have to if you don't wanna..."

"No really...it's fine," Carrie said with a smile. "You're my guests. You deserve the best I've got."

Sonic shrugged. "All right then."

As Sonic and Tails opened up their bags on the bed, Carrie took a seat on the nearby couch.

"So what's been going on with you two lately?" Carrie asked. "Robotnik do anything bad recently?"

"Apart from Metal Sonic and some little attacks, no," Sonic replied. "It's been real quiet and boring."

"Oh well... Better to be bored than have the planet being in trouble though, huh?"

Sonic's expression changed slightly, as he mentioned Metal. A small frown replaced his smile. However, he decided now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

The smile came back quickly, and Sonic replied, "Yeah, I'm glad Robotnik hasn't tried anything."

Carrie then froze, her eyes widened a bit in shock. Sonic wondered for a moment if it was because he'd frowned in front of her. However, her next comment shot that theory down.

"Speaking of trouble, I think we've got some close by right now. I can sense it."

"You can?" Sonic asked.

This wasn't unusual for Carrie. She had something of a sixth sense for danger, and could sense people plotting trouble nearby. This was how she'd saved Mr. Olandra's life before, in fact. She'd sensed the bandits who were about to attack him and warned him about it. It was definitely a weird power, although Sonic had long since gotten used to it.

"Yes," Carrie said. She turned around to look out the window.

Sonic zipped over to the window to see what Carrie was looking at. However, he couldn't see or hear anything unusual from here. Carts rattled past on the stony street below, and distant echoes of music and voices being carried on the wind reached their ears. As far as he could tell, no shady people lurked about outside.

"There was someone on the roof across the street from us," Carrie said. She pointed at the building across the way, which was an apartment building. "They're gone now, whoever they were."

Sonic looked out the window towards the other roof, but he didn't see anybody.

"Whoever was there, he's gone now," he said. "Is it more of those gunmen like the ones that were after you two years ago? The ones from that Blackie Sten guy?"

"I really hope not," Carrie replied. "But I wouldn't get too worried about it. Cities are full of criminals, you know."

"I'll go down and check it out anyway," Sonic said, looking back at Carrie. "You never know what could be going on out there."

"Okay, but be careful Sonic," the wolf said.

Sonic nodded, and zipped down the stairs in just several seconds. As he flew across the lobby, he extended a hand to reach for the doorknob. However, the door opened before he could reach it. A familiar red echidna, wearing a brown cowboy hat and a backpack, stood in the doorway. Sonic immediately knew who it was, and slowed to a halt, being careful not to leave skid marks on the floor.

"Knuckles!" he shouted.

"Whoa!" Knuckles said, stepping back a bit. Sonic had nearly run straight into him as he was stopping. The echidna smirked a bit. "Nice welcome, Sonic."

"Heh heh, sorry," Sonic said, smiling as he rubbed a hand across the back of his head. Suddenly he was hit with a thought. "Were you on the roof of the building across the street a minute ago?"

"Err, no..." Knuckles said. "And is that a way to say hello to your friend?"

"Sorry it's just that-" Sonic started.

"I came to this hotel for a reason," Knuckles interrupted. "So I could bunk with Carrie for the tournament. And we just have this chance encounter and this is how you treat me?"

"Knuckles, listen to me," Sonic interjected, moving past him towards the door. "Can we talk about this later? I'm doing something kind of important right now."

"What? What is it?" Knuckles asked, folding his arms.

"Err...Sonic," Carrie spoke up. She was walking across the lobby with Tails behind her. "I said you didn't have to worry about it."

"Could someone tell me what's going on right now?" Knuckles asked, a hint of frustration in his voice.

"Someone was on the roof across the street," Carrie said. "I sensed him, and he was wanting to cause trouble. It might be more men from that Blackie Sten guy we heard about two years ago, but it might not be them either. Cities are already full of plenty of criminals."

"Oh?" Knuckles asked. He knew about Carrie's sixth sense as well. He then smiled a bit. "Don't worry about it Carrie. If Blackie Sten's men are back, they'll get these in the face!"

Knuckles held up his fists and smiled. Sonic smiled a bit too, remembering what it had been like to first see him in that street fighting tournament two years ago. He'd pretty much been able to easily defeat pretty much all of his opponents with his lightning-quick punches. His fists had moved so quickly during the fights they'd looked like nothing but white blurs.

"Heh, good to know I've got my two bodyguards back together again," Carrie said with a grin. "If it's those gun men again, I know you'll be able to handle them no sweat."

"You should make that three," Tails said, speaking up.

"Oops, sorry Tails," she apologized, turning to face the fox. "I forgot you've gotten tougher lately too."

"He sure has," Sonic said, smiling as he put a hand on Tails' shoulder. "He was a great help in the fight against Metal Sonic, and not to mention at Robotnik's old base in Zeraw two years ago."

"Anyway Knuckles," Carrie said, turning to face him. "You're here for the tournament I'm guessing. Are you going to stay in my room with us?"

"Yeah," Knuckles replied. "I've got my sleeping bag, and I won't mind sleeping in it on the floor, if it comes to that. I've been roughing it for years as a treasure hunter."

"You get a lot of money from treasure hunting lately?" Tails asked.

"Yup..." Knuckles said back. "But I didn't need to pay money for my ticket. President Rudot sent me a premium one as a reward. How could I say no to that, even with the money I'm making? After all, they only hold the Grakoran Tournament once every ten years. I don't wanna have to wait till I'm twenty-six to see it the next time."

"Really?" Sonic said. "We've all got premiums from President Rudot too. Maybe we can all sit together!"

"Awesome!" Tails shouted.

Carrie checked her watch.

"Hey... It's almost 5:30 now," she said. "After Knuckles drops off his stuff, what do you say we all go out to eat to celebrate this meeting? Then tonight we can all go to the opening ceremonies for the tournament."

"Sounds great to me!" Sonic replied.

"Me too!" Knuckles added.

"Me three!" Tails said, chiming in as well.

"Let's get going then!" Carrie said, leading the way to the stairs.

**A few blocks away from the hotel…**

"Excellent..." a certain individual whispered, as he walked down the street. He wore a leather trench coat over his body. It was warm out, but he had to wear it to keep his equipment concealed. He tipped his hat a little lower, to guard his eyes against the intense sunlight.

The information had been correct. Sonic and his friends were at the tournament as expected, and he had been tailing them ever since they'd landed at the airport. After they'd gone into the hotel, he'd taken up a position on the rooftop across the street. Now he knew what room they were staying in, thanks to his binoculars. He also now knew what their plans for the evening were, thanks to a directional microphone.

Everything had almost fallen to shit though when that wolf, Carrie, had nearly spotted him when she'd looked out the window, but fortunately he managed to slip off before being seen.

_Now that I know what Sonic and his friends are planning, it'll make my job of capturing them a whole lot easier. Their days are numbered, and when they're up I'll be twenty million demens richer. _

A devilish grin crossed his face as he returned to his own lodgings. He had to make plans for how to take advantage of this new development...


	4. Chapter 3: A Knockout Performance

**Chapter 3: A Knockout Performance**

**September 1st, 2316 – 5:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

After leaving the hotel, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie went to a nearby open-air restaurant to eat dinner. The courtyard they were sitting in was surrounded in all sides by buildings, giving the place a cozy feeling. A tree gave them shade to block out the late afternoon sun, and a candle burned at the wooden table they were seated at.

After they placed their orders and got their drinks, Sonic decided he'd talk to Knuckles.

"Knuckles," Sonic said. "Where all you've been treasure hunting since we met last?"

"Well, the last place I've been to is my home country, Tresed."

"The desert?" Tails asked. "Why out there?"

"Because there's the ruins of a lost civilization out there, that's why," Knuckles said.

"Oooh..." Carrie said. "What's the place you explored like?"

"It's kind of weird," Knuckles said. "Going by the ruins of the city I explored, the civilization thereseemed pretty advanced for the time it was built. I mean... You should have seen the hieroglyphics I found. Their language is so developed and–"

"Eh, they're just words," Sonic said. "What's so special about a language? Can't we talk about something more exciting, like the treasure you found?"

Knuckles growled a bit.

"Look Sonic, without a language, it's impossible for us to have civilization, you know? We'd all still be hanging out in caves and–"

"Now now Knuckles," Carrie said, putting an arm on his shoulder. "Just tell Sonic about the treasure, okay? I don't want us to get into a fight, especially since this is the first time in ages we've all been together."

"Fine," Knuckles said, pulling away from Carrie. He looked at Sonic. "Well, okay. The treasure I found out in this underground sarcophagus–"

"Sarco-what?" Tails asked.

"A tomb," Knuckles stated, choosing a simpler term. He rolled his eyes, seemingly getting irked by this whole conversation. "Anyway, I found two diamond arm bands around the arms of the mummy in there. He must have been a real important person when he was alive..."

"You took from a grave?" Carrie asked with shock. "Doesn't it bug you that you're a grave robber by doing that?"

"Well it's not like it's doing anyone any good sitting down there, is it?" Knuckles asked. "I don't think that mummy needs it anymore, do you? Jeez, you're starting to sound like my mom and dad. That's why I ran away from them. They were always 'Waaah! Waaah! Don't touch that! Waaah! Waaah! Don't go in that room! Waaah! Waaah! It's thousands of years old!' That got old real fast. I just had to get away from them."

Sonic laughed a bit, and said, "I think I'd do the same thing."

Knuckles grinned at Sonic, and then started talking again.

"Well, anyway, about those arm bands. I've got them in my backpack back at the hotel."

"Really?" Carrie said. "Can I see it when we get back?"

"Sure, why not?" Knuckles said, but then he smirked. "You're awful enthusiastic about seeing it, considering I stole it from a grave."

Carrie blushed, and the white fur on her cheeks turned pink. "Well I'm not gonna touch it... I just want to see it. That's all."

"Heh, fair enough," Knuckles replied.

"Ooooh! Here comes our food!" Tails said, pointing at the approaching waiter.

The waiter came over, put down everyone's dishes, and then softly said, "Enjoy". He bowed and walked off.

"Looks great," Sonic said, glancing over his plate. He then looked at the others. "Let's get started!"

"Hey Sonic," Carrie spoke up. "Save your energy. We still gotta go to that show tonight, remember?"

"Don't worry about me," he said. "I got enough energy to keep me awake all night!"

**Later that night...**

The sunlight quickly gave way to darkness, as the sun set behind the buildings lining the streets. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie had finished eating a while back, and they were now headed through the Grakoran Stadium to find their seats for the opening ceremonies. The stadium could easily hold thirty thousand spectators, and most of these sat on the marble benches that ran around the colossal structure. However, the four of them would instead be sitting in a private box.

At long last, they opened the door to their private box, and took a look around where they'd be sitting tonight. There certainly wouldn't be any marble benches for them. Instead, they saw four padded seats, done in soft red cloth. These seats looked fit for a king.

After entering the box, Knuckles immediately ran to the front to look down into the arena.

"Wow...this place is incredible!" Knuckles said, as he gazed across the open space. "I heard that this stadium is thousands of years old, but it looks like it could have been built just yesterday. I didn't know that the entire thing had such nice preservation!"

Carrie had never come in this place before, even though she lived in this city. They always kept this place locked up tight, except for the Grakoran Tournament. So when the wolf saw how new this place looked, she nearly choked.

The maintenance crews had done a magnificent job keeping this place up. Light from thousands of torches reflected off of the well-polished marble the stadium was constructed of, giving the place a glowing quality. The show must have been completely sold out as well, because every seat she could see from their position was full. Lots of excited chatter could be heard among all the people. The entire atmosphere around the stadium felt energized.

A runners' track ran all the way around the center of the arena, and in the middle of that was a field of packed-in dirt. Hundreds of musicians filled a third of that space, sporting horns, flutes, string instruments, bells, and drums. That wasn't what caught Carrie's attention. Even without microphones and speakers, she could clearly hear the musicians getting in some last-minute practice. Carrie could even tell the difference between each instrument she was hearing.

"That's amazing!" Carrie said. "How does that music get all the way up here without any modern sound equipment?"

"It's called acoustics Carrie," Knuckles answered. "I heard that this stadium was designed so that sound could carry very easily here. That way you can hear sounds coming from the middle of the stadium, without needing speakers or anything like that."

"I'm impressed!" she said.

After that, the four of them took their seats and waited for the show to begin. While Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles chatted, Carrie let her thoughts wander around.

_I'm real worried about that guy who was on the roof across the way, even though I know I shouldn't be. If it's more of Blackie Sten's men, I should be able to get away easy with these guys helping... But then that would mean I'd have to give up my home again. I really don't want to do that. Mr. Olandra's been so nice to me, what with giving me that room and the job. I doubt I'll find another person in the world that generous. Unless..._

Carrie looked to her left, facing her three friends. Sonic was busy talking with Knuckles, the two of them catching up with each other. Meanwhile, Tails was glancing out across the stadium, taking in the surroundings.

_Maybe Sonic and Tails would let me stay with them if that happened? They said it was pretty lonely at their hideout, with how it was in the middle of nowhere. I could be good company. _

Suddenly, a musician below sounded a blast on his horn, and the other musicians quickly joined in. Everyone in the stadium immediately stopped talking to listen to the music. For a minute or two, nothing else happened, but then cheering resounded as the athletes entered the stadium field through the gateways below the spectator stands. A couple minutes later, all of the athletes in the tournament were assembled down below, filling up the dirt space in the field that the musicians didn't take up.

As the music faded away, Carrie saw a white and black lemur walking to stand in front of the athletes. The robes she wore practically shined with a rainbow of color. Adding onto that, an ivy wreath was around her shoulders, and a golden crown sparkled upon her head. The wolf recognized her as Teracotza XII, the queen of Tneicna. Her ancestor, Teracotza III, was on one of the tapestries in Carrie's room.

With a booming voice, she shouted, "People of Planet Freedom! Welcome to our humble city for the 216th Grakoran Tournament! We thank all of you for coming all this way to watch this glorious event!"

A loud chorus of cheering and clapping rose up from the people around the stadium. After it quieted down, the queen resumed her speech.

"For many generations, we have continued to hold this tournament, decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium, no matter what circumstances grip our planet. Famines, plagues, wars, even the arrival of the humans has not prevented this tournament from starting right on schedule every decade, and it will stay that way for many generations more!"

Once again, more cheering and clapping rose up from the spectators. The queen picked up the speech again after the cheering. She waved her hand across the competitors standing behind her.

"I also must thank these athletes, for all of their hard work! It takes a tremendous amount of effort and dedication to even hope of getting a chance at standing here today! They deserve your utmost respect for their accomplishments! Please, give it to them!"

As the audience cheered again, the athletes bowed to them. One more time, the queen began speaking.

"May all of you here today be able to witness this occasion again in another ten years! And with that, let the opening ceremonies of our tournament begin!"

Right after Teracotza XII finished speaking, firework rockets shot up from the edges of the stadium, and exploded in colorful flashes of light as the audience 'oohed' and 'aahed'. Following that, buckets of confetti were poured from the canopies above the spectators, blanketing the entire stadium in a snow of paper.

Dancers in colorful costumes dashed across the runners' track down below, doing various tricks to impress the audience. A rat went all the way down the track while walking on his hands only, while six cats jumped on each other's shoulders to make a six-man pyramid.

"Oooh, this is great!" Carrie yelled. "I love it!"

"Yeah, this is real cool!" Tails shouted too.

In the distance though, Carrie heard a strange roaring sound. The roar made her think of an engine. Whatever it was, the noise was getting closer fast. Then it reached almost deafening levels as some kind of hover bike entered the stadium through the open roof. It looked kind of like a white jet ski, only short wings extended from the sides, and there were hover pods glowing on the bottom of the ship. A white trail of smoke flew out from the bike as it followed the curve of the stadium. Carrie guessed that he was part of the show, whoever he was.

However, the pilot felt quite out of place here. Tneicnans avoided human machines as much as possible, so it didn't make sense for this modern jet bike to be performing in a Tneicnan festival. It was then that she realized everyone else had suddenly stopped performing, including the musicians and dancers. All eyes in the stadium were on that bike, and the officials in the stadium seemed confused by the bike's appearance. Furthermore, the wolf's sixth sense for trouble was tingling. Now Carrie knew for sure that something was up.

In a surprise, the bike turned towards their private booth. Carrie reflexively held up her arms, believing he was about to crash. However, the driver engaged the air brake and stopped just in front of their box. The bike slowly rotated to the left, so that the craft was perpendicular to their seats. The pilot was a purple weasel, wearing a cowboy hat and a belt with a revolver strapped to it. He also had some kind of grenade gun strapped across his back.

"My prey!" he shouted, pulling the launcher off of his back. "Nack the Weasel has come for you at last!"

Before Carrie could move, the weasel fired his weapon and sent a grenade flying their way. The projectile didn't explode when it landed in front of their seats though. Instead, a cloud of purple gas popped out of the canister, instantly filling the entire private box. Carrie coughed and gasped for air, and then she realized she was having a hard time trying to keep her eyes open. Also, her thoughts became very muddy and unclear.

_It's sleeping gas..._

Before Carrie could get up from her seat, she slumped back into it with her eyes closed, as she went unconscious.


	5. Chapter 4: Foes Appear

**Chapter 4: Foes Appear **

**September 1st, 2316 – 7:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

Tails knew something was wrong when that hover bike had entered the stadium. Everyone in the stadium, even the performers, stopped what they were doing when the machine had appeared. This was definitely not some type of stunt to impress the crowd. Because Tails already steeled himself to the possibility of trouble, he leaped into action even as Nack had started pulling that gun off of his back. Tails was already flying in the air as the weasel pulled his gun around to aim.

Unfortunately, he wasn't too late to stop him from firing. Tails turned to see what damage the grenade had done, and then he gave a sigh as he realized it was just some kind of gas. He sniffed it for a moment, and felt himself getting sleepy. It wasn't anything but a nonlethal knockout gas.

He saw that Sonic and Knuckles had gotten out in time, and they were standing on the roof of the box where the gas wouldn't affect them. Carrie hadn't gotten out in time, as Tails saw her limp form on the floor next to their seats, but she'd probably be okay since it was a nonlethal gas. The problem right now was taking care of this Nack character before he caused any real damage.

Tails turned his eyes back to Nack, and the weasel distinctively looked frightened. It looked like he'd been planning to knock all four of them out with the gas, but he'd underestimated their speed. It also looked like he didn't have a backup plan; otherwise he'd probably be putting it into motion right now. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles thus had the advantage.

Reaching for his belt, Nack pulled out the revolver from his holster and fired at Tails. The weasel was much slower than the fox though, and Tails easily dodged to the side to avoid the bullet. Before he could fire another shot, Knuckles leaped onto Nack's hover bike and grabbed his gun arm. The echidna quickly pointed the gun up away from the crowd, so it wouldn't go off and hurt anyone.

"Argh!" Nack screamed as he tried to fight the echidna off. He fired a few shots while he struggled to break Knuckle's grip. "Let go of me!"

Ignoring his cry, Knuckles punched Nack in the stomach. The weasel's eyes practically popped out of his head in response, as Nack loosened his grip on the revolver. It slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground below. Now Nack was completely unarmed. Roaring in frustration, the weasel tried to punch back at Knuckles. Knuckles easily blocked his punch with his other hand, and gave Nack a head butt. Nack stumbled backwards from the impact, and fell against the controls for the hover bike.

"Just give up, you stupid moron," Knuckles said. "There's no way you can win this fight. If I'm giving you this much trouble by myself, then you've got no chance at all of winning when Sonic and Tails join in."

Staggering up, using the control console as leverage, Nack swayed to a stand. Flustered, he straightened his cowboy hat and growled at Knuckles.

"I'll kill myself before I give up," Nack snarled.

He snatched for one of the handles of his bike and twisted it. The bike suddenly got a burst of speed and zoomed away from its position near the gassed private box. Knuckles wasn't ready for the sudden movement and fell off, although he managed to keep himself from falling into the crowd by using his dreadlocks to float.

"I'll be back!" Nack shouted as he flew around the stadium. "And next time I'll have an even better plan!"

Tails smirked. It wasn't like getting a better plan would be difficult, with how it looked like his first plan had failed on every level. Soldiers started to flood into the stadium to escort people out and secure the area. Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles gathered back in their private box. The gas had dissipated, although Carrie was still out cold. Tails put an ear against her chest, and then looked up.

"She still has a heartbeat," Tails said. "That stuff Nack used before must have just been sleeping gas."

"Sleeping gas?" Knuckles asked. "Why that?"

"He wanted to capture us alive maybe?" Sonic suggested. "He said something about us being his prey."

"He's hunting us?" Tails asked.

"Wait a minute," Knuckles interrupted. "He just said 'My prey'. He didn't say who his prey was. For all we know this is another one of Blackie Sten's hired guns trying to capture Carrie again."

"Hold on," Tails interjected. "The Blackie Sten guys always wanted Carrie dead. Why would they suddenly want her alive?"

"There's a bigger reward for her alive maybe?" Knuckles suggested.

"In any case," Sonic spoke up, leaning down over Carrie. "Let's get her out of here."

Carrie's build set her as the tallest and heaviest in their group, due to her species. However, it was quite easy to carry her when they all worked together. The hard part was getting through the crowd of people flushing out of the stadium. They had to be very careful not to hit the wolf on anything to hurt her. After a minute or so of walking, a pig dressed in a soldier's uniform approached them.

"You three," he asked. "Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles I presume? Are you all right? Who was that guy who just attacked you?"

"We're fine," Sonic said. "He said his name was Nack, and he's going to try again for us."

"I see then. I'm Captain Relis, commander of the regiment of soldiers in this city, so I'll put up a security detail around your lodgings, in case he makes good on his threat. Now, where are you staying for the tournament?"

"The Brenbar Inn," Sonic said.

"I'll get right on securing that place then," the pig said, placing a hand upon the hilt of his sword. "By the way, don't worry about that weasel guy. We'll make extra sure to keep an eye out for him."

"I'd be careful while you're after him," Sonic warned. "He seems to like a grand entrance, and who knows what he'll try next time?"

"Yes, I know, heh heh," the pig chuckled. "But making a grand entrance tonight is going to cost him later. There were lots of witnesses in the stadium, and some people even took his picture. He should be easy to track down now, and if he gets anywhere near your hotel we should see him."

"Very good," Knuckles said. "Let's get Carrie home right this minute then."

"You mean that wolf the three of you are carrying?" the pig said. "Is she gonna be okay? I saw she was standing right in the middle of that gas the weasel used."

"It was only sleeping gas," Tails explained. "She'll wake up soon and she'll be fine."

"That's a relief," the pig said, wiping sweat from his brow. "I was worried it was poisonous. Anyway, go ahead. Your guard detail will set up around there shortly."

"Thank you," Sonic said.

About forty minutes later, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie finally got back to the hotel. Carrie had been quite heavy to carry through all those streets, not to mention they'd gotten some funny looks, but they'd finally made it back to the Brenbar again. Up the stairs they went, exhausted from having to carry her up to the third floor. Finally, Sonic pulled Carrie's keys out of her pocket and unlocked her room. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles then carefully laid Carrie down on the bed. She appeared to be breathing normally and everything, and just seemed to be in a natural deep sleep. While Tails wiped sweat off his brow, Sonic drew the sheets over her.

"What a day..." Knuckles said with a sigh. "I'm on frickin' holiday here. I don't wanna deal with stuff like this..."

"Tell me about it," Sonic said, wiping sweat from his own brow and staring down at the wolf's prone form.

"It's not like we've got a lot to do lazing around on the beach back home," Tails said. "It's been like that for months. No missions from the President at all."

"I guess you're right Tails," Sonic replied.

Knuckles staggered over to where he'd laid out his sleeping bag, and slipped inside it. As he did, he said, "Dunno about you, but I'm feeling real tired tonight even though it's early. Between the traveling to get here, running around town, and now carrying Carrie back here, I'm exhausted. If you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

"That's okay Knuckles, I'm tired too," Sonic said, going over to the couch and drawing a blanket over himself. As he grabbed a pillow and set it down against the armrest, he looked at Tails. "Where are you going to sleep?"

"I guess I can share the bed with Carrie," Tails said. "There's enough room in it for two people."

"All right then big guy," Sonic replied. "Just don't wake Carrie, all right?"

Tails smiled. "I won't. Good night Sonic."

"'Night Tails," Sonic said as he closed his eyes, and curled up into a tight ball.

Meanwhile, Tails slipped into bed next to Carrie, and pulled the sheets over his body. However, he realized he was still cold, and moved a little closer to Carrie. The wolf's body heat helped him warm up, and now he felt ready to sleep.

As Tails closed his eyes, he whispered, "Good night Carrie."

**Later that night…**

As the day came to a close, the sky filled up with clouds, making for an overcast sky. By 10 pm, it was almost pitch black outside the city. The special aircraft light on Nack's bike easily cut through the darkness though. He landed near a barn at an abandoned farm far outside the city, and dismounted. Nack then ignited several lanterns inside the barn so that he could see what he was doing. The place looked like it was about to fall apart, but it made for a nice isolated place to maintain a temporary hideout. As he pushed his bike into the barn, he grumbled to himself. When he hid the bike behind a stack of hay, the grumbling had escalated into yelling.

"Damn you, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles!" the weasel yelled. "You stole away my twenty million demens!"

Then he cursed the trio with every swear word he could think of, and then went back through his list of words again to make sure he didn't forget any. Every single one he screamed at the top of his lungs. When he was done, he was breathing heavily, and leaning upon his knees. His eyes fell upon a wooden barrel lying down in the middle of the floor. Nack roared in rage, while he kicked the container as hard as he could. However, the only thing Nack succeeded in doing was severely injuring his toe. As he limped around on one foot, he went through his list of swear words again.

Finally though, the weasel finished swearing, and spurred himself to prepare for another strike tomorrow. Nack walked over to where he'd left two metal boxes on top of a crate, and opened them up. The one on the left contained several backup revolvers. The other one contained loose bullets, and a bandolier to carry them with.

Not wanting to be caught outgunned like he had been today, Nack strapped two revolvers to his belt this time, and followed up by slipping the rounds into the bandolier. When he was done with that, he slipped the garment over his back, so that it crossed diagonally over his chest.

"I'm ready this time," Nack said, as he snagged the revolvers out of his belt and twirled them around in his fingers.

"No you're not, you moron," a voice called out. It was coming from the front door of the barn.

Nack jerked up his six shooters and pointed them at the open door. Because there was an overcast sky tonight, all he saw outside was blackness. Not a single star was visible.

"Who're you?" Nack shouted. "Show yourself!"

He got no response. The only thing Nack could hear was the wind whistling past outside the barn. He slowly tiptoed over towards the door to look outside. When the weasel got there, he scanned the area outside from his vantage point, but he couldn't see much of anything. It was too dark outside. Nack started to feel a little nervous. His hands grasped the revolvers a little more firmly, his finger moving closer to the trigger.

He heard faint footsteps going through the back of the barn, and whirled around, pulling his guns up. Nack didn't see anybody. There was nothing inside the barn but the boxes full of his equipment. Although...he did see that the way he'd stacked his boxes had left a small space between them and the wall in the back corner. It was large enough for somebody to hide in... He quickly dashed across the floor, jerking his revolvers up as he rounded the corner. Nobody was there.

Nack started to turn around, and then realized there was a sharp sword pointed at his throat. Gasping, he backed up and crashed into the stack of boxes. After he regained his composure, he noticed that he was looking at a purple vixen with a white muzzle. Long hair, colored a slightly darker shade of purple than her body fur, flowed from her head. Most of it was tied up in a ponytail, although some of it flopped down over her face. However, under her bangs Nack could clearly see emerald-green eyes, which looked almost as piercing as the sword she had pointed at his throat.

"This is the proof that you aren't ready," she said, moving her sword a hair closer to his neck. "If I were Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, this fight would already be over."

"Good thing you're not them then," Nack breathed out, trying to lean back away from the blade. "Could you please put away that sword?"

"Certainly," she said, slipping her sword back into its holster.

Relaxing, Nack tilted his head down so he could get a better look at her. She was dressed in a red tunic with no sleeves, and a small red skirt with open sides, probably to allow more leg movement. Underneath this she wore what looked like a black body suit with shortened sleeves and legs, so that the ends of her legs and arms were visible. However...with how tight that suit was, he noticed she did have one fine body...

Nack let off a wolf whistle at her stunning looks, which the fox responded to by slapping him in the face. Nack screamed in pain as he spun away, clutching to his face with one hand.

"I didn't come here to sleep with you, sleazy pervert!" she shouted. "I came here to get help."

Nack turned back to face her with a surprised look on his face, the hand mark on his face turning a more visible red.

"Help?" Nack muttered. "Looks more to me like you're trying to kill me. What kind of help do you want anyway?"

"I'm after the twenty million demen bounty on Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, just like you are," she said. "But I don't think either of us can do it alone. If we get in a straight up fight with them, we'd lose easily. They're just too powerful, and it's no wonder they've kept Robotnik on the ropes for so long with their strength this high. But..."

She paused.

"But what?" Nack asked.

"While those three are very strong, none of them are especially bright."

"What about Tails though?" Nack said. "You should see some of the crazy things he's built."

"Being a genius with math and science doesn't mean you'll beat everyone in the smarts department," she stated firmly. "Otherwise, scientists would rule the world. But they don't, do they?"

"You have a point," Nack said.

"Anyway, a much better plan for capturing them would be to defeat them through deception, rather than open combat. Many times in history and in warfare, inferior forces have defeated much more powerful forces through trickery and deception. We can do the same thing here."

Nack scratched his chin.

"I'm liking what I hear so far. Is there a catch though?"

"I want half of the reward. You get the hedgehog for the ten million on him. I get the fox and the echidna for the ten million on them. Does that sound good to you?"

Nack thought it over for a moment.

_She's right about Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Knuckles beat me tonight, and he wasn't getting any help from his friends. I could use an extra brain to help come up with a way to outwit them... On the other hand, I really don't want to split up the reward money. _

An idea suddenly hit him, and he grinned inwardly.

_Let's just have the best of both worlds. I'll cooperate with Psycho Purple Ninja Vixen here until we nab the bounties, and then I'll kill her myself. Then the reward will be all mine. _

"Sounds like a good deal to me," he said, as he extended his hand. "Let's shake on it."

The vixen eyed him curiously.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Shake on it?"

Nack blinked, not sure if she were kidding or not.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. I'm not familiar with that phrase."

He rolled his eyes. For being such a stealthy little girl, she sure didn't seem too bright. Sighing, he began to explain.

"All right...just extend your hand like I do, and grab my hand. Then we shake each other's hands. That's meant to represent us sealing the deal."

She nodded, looking a little embarrassed.

"Sorry... It's just that where I come from, we don't use that sort of gesture. Anyway, I'll do it."

She smiled and took his hand firmly. The vixen had a rather strong grip for her looks. Nack hoped that when he planned to kill her he didn't find himself with that grip stuck around his neck. Regardless, he crossed his fingers behind his back with his other hand.

"Good then," she replied, as she stepped back after the handshake. "By the way, we haven't exchanged names yet. My name is Canma Neuyan."

"Nack the Weasel, at your service..." the weasel gave an exaggerated theatrical gesture, as he bowed while sweeping his cowboy hat against his chest. "...In more ways than one, I hope, heh heh."

A fist slammed down on top of Nack's head, and he fell down. He then got a second jolt of pain as his chin smacked on the ground below. He cried out in pain, as he held both ends of his head in an effort to soothe the pain.

"I said I'm not here for your pleasure," Canma said, as she walked away. "Now let's get to sleep. We've got work to do in the morning."

Grumbling, Nack dusted off his cowboy hat and slipped it back across his head. He'd probably shoot her right now, if only she weren't helping him get those bounties. He would be most happy to kill her though, once they finally did capture their quarry. But until then, he'd be a good boy and cooperate...


	6. Chapter 5: Another Go

**Chapter 5: Another Go**

**September 2nd, 2316 – 5:00 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna**

A crowd of athletes dashed down the foot track in the Grakoran Stadium as fast as they could. The thing was, they weren't going very fast. This was because the runners were competing in the Pakanoka event. It was basically like the hundred meter dash, with one difference: they sprinted down the track wearing full Tneicnan war armor. Not to mention, each of the runners had a rope wrapped around their waist, which was in turn attached to a large boulder. It took endurance and raw strength to win this event, in addition to speed.

However, Sonic thought all these running events were really boring. If he were in the tournament, he could get down the track four times before these guys even made it to the halfway point. However, Sonic had been outvoted two to one by Tails and Knuckles on going to them. So, here he was, sitting here bored out of his mind. Meanwhile, Tails and Knuckles were excitedly chatting next to him.

"That woman in front is tearing it up," Tails said, pointing down at the runners below. "She must be really strong."

The runner that Tails was pointing at was a rhino at the front of the pack. She was leading by about thirty feet.

"I bet you I could beat her in a fight," Knuckles said, folding his arms. "Her strength wouldn't mean anything. I'd take her down just as easy as that Nack guy who attacked us the other night."

Sonic shot a glance at Knuckles. Him mentioning Nack reminded him of Carrie. She was still asleep from Nack's sleeping gas, and they'd left her in bed for today. Mr. Olandra said he'd call a doctor to look over her. Apparently it was a very strong gas, and it also helped that Carrie had been stuck in the middle of it. Sonic hoped she'd be okay, and he hoped her attacker would get caught soon.

"Yeah...well I hope Nack gets arrested fast," Sonic said. "I don't want him wrecking our vacation anymore."

"Oh! That reminds me!" Tails said.

The fox reached inside a bag next to his seat, and pulled out a laptop computer. After booting it up, he went through his files until he opened up a document with Nack's picture on it. He started talking as Sonic and Knuckles leaned over to look at the screen.

"After he told us his name, I logged onto the government's intelligence network today and got whatever info I could find on him there," Tails explained. "Anyway, according to the network, Nack the Weasel has been a bounty hunter and a treasure hunter for a while now, and he's got a bad reputation."

"What kind of reputation?" Sonic asked.

"He'll change his alliance at the drop of a demen," Tails answered. "He's only interested in working for whoever will give him the most money, or doing whatever work is the most profitable at the time. Even if you were his best friend, he'd backstab you without a second thought if he could find a way to get cash out of it."

"I hate this guy already," Knuckles said. "But anyway, if he only does what gets him the most money, Carrie or us must be worth a big bounty."

"Yeah," Tails said. "He will be coming back I bet, with what this profile says."

"Anything else in there?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we already saw his hover bike and his weapon of choice," Tails said. "His favorite way of capturing bounties is using ambushes, tricks, and traps."

"I wouldn't worry about him," Knuckles said. "We kicked his ass last night easy."

"But he's gonna be coming back," Tails warned. "And I think he's going to be more careful the second time, now that he knows how dangerous we are."

"Heh, everything will be fine little bro," Sonic said as he gave Tails a hearty slap on the back. "We can take him if he ever gets to us, and now he's gonna have to deal with the new security too."

After last night, security had been doubled in the Grakoran Stadium, and they'd even posted four strong guards in front of the door to their private box. Also, part of a regiment of soldiers has been concentrated around the Brenbar Inn, as Captain Relis had promised.

"I dunno guys," Tails said. "I've got a feeling it's not going to be enough to keep him away..."

The rest of the Pakanoka event passed without incident. It was the last one of the day, so after it ended an hour later the trio walked back towards the hotel.

"I'm glad that's over," Sonic said. "I really hope the rest of the tournament's not as boring as those running events..."

"Oh Sonic," Knuckles said with a sigh. "Are you ever gonna stop complaining about those slow runners?"

"Nope. They were so slow they were almost going backwards," Sonic said, as he began to walk backwards in front of the other two.

"Believe it or not, everybody's isn't lucky enough to have your gift of super speed," Knuckles said, folding his arms.

"Sometimes I wish everyone else did," Sonic fumed, turning around again to face forward. "Then I wouldn't have to spend so much time waiting for people to catch up with me."

"You sure about that?" Tails asked. "Then your super speed wouldn't be so special anymore."

"I guess you have a point," Sonic replied.

"Yeah…can you imagine how boring super speed would be then?" Knuckles said. "I wouldn't like seeing everyone have my strength, or everyone being able to fly like Tails. Worse, what if someone had our speed, strength, and flight? Yeesh...makes my head spin."

"Especially if he had no personality, was perfect in every way, and had chi abilities," Tails added.

"Oh boy!" Sonic said with a laugh. "I'm glad Planet Freedom's not overrun with people like that. I guess I should be happy I'm the only one who can run so fast."

"Yep," Knuckles agreed. He then stopped and said, "Hey look...we made it back to the hotel!"

Sonic looked himself, and he saw that they were indeed only a little ways away from the Brenbar Inn. It looked about the same as when they'd come here yesterday, only now guards were posted around the building and there were four of them flanking the door. The metal plating of their chest armor shone in the setting sun, and their leather shoulder pads made them look very broad shouldered and intimidating. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles didn't pay them much attention. However, some of the soldiers looked at them and whispered as they walked past.

They stepped into the lobby, which was now lit by torches hanging from the walls and candelabras due to the incoming darkness. They headed back up the dimly lit stairs to Carrie's room. Even in the darkness, they could see her eyes still lay shut. Grabbing a candle from a table in the hallway, Knuckles set it down on the nightstand next to her bed.

"Damn... I was expecting she'd be awake when we got back," Sonic said. "I can't believe she's still sleeping."

"What kind of gas could have done this?" Tails asked.

"Who knows?" Knuckles said. "I just hope that stuff didn't put her into a coma or anything."

"Speaking of Nack, do you think he really wanted to capture us instead of her?" Tails said. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Blackie Sten's men to just suddenly switch from wanting her alive instead of dead."

"It could be anything Tails," Sonic interrupted. "We just won't know until we can capture this Nack guy and get some real answers from him."

"How do we find him?" Tails asked.

"Simple," Knuckles said. "We just wait for him to come to us. If he wants us that badly, he will be back like he promised. Nack will be along any time now, I bet."

There was a knock on the door. Knuckles whirled around into a fighting stance, facing the door. Sonic did the same. Tails moved to stand between Carrie's bed and the door. There was a second knocking.

"Who is it?" Sonic said.

"It's just me Sonic, Mr. Olandra," a familiar voice said, coming from the other side.

Knuckles let out a sigh as he straightened back up again. Sonic started walking over to the door, and opened it up. Standing there was a short, plump robin in a blue robe. He also had a small blue hat. This was Mr. Olandra, the owner of the hotel.

"Sorry to interrupt you," the robin said. "But Sonic, you have a phone call."

"You have a phone here?" Tails said. "But this is Tneicna..."

"I know," Mr. Olandra said with a grin. "I figured I could draw in more customers who aren't Tneicnan by getting a phone, and it's worked great. I've got the only phone for blocks around. Anyway, like I said Sonic, someone's calling for you."

"Well, okay then," Sonic said. "Excuse me guys."

"Sure," Knuckles said.

Sonic walked past the robin and headed for the stairs. Meanwhile, Mr. Olandra came into the room and stood next to Carrie.

"Did you get a doctor to look over her, like you said you would?" Tails asked.

"Yes, I did," he replied, pulling over a stool to sit on with his feathered arms. He sat down on it. "He said she'd be fine. She's the victim of a rare, expensive type of sleeping gas called _Sconocea. _It can put people to sleep for nearly a day or more"

Knuckles let out a whistle.

"That's a really long time!" he said.

"Yes, I know," the robin replied. "He said it's often used by bounty hunters who need to deliver their targets alive. It makes it a lot easier to transport the bounties this way. By the time the unlucky victim has woken up, his capturers have already gotten him to his destination."

"It's been almost a day since she got hit by that stuff, hasn't it?" Tails said. "That means she should be waking up soon."

"Yeah, you're right Tails," Knuckles added. "It's about 7 pm now, and it was like 7:30 last night when she got gassed."

"Marvelous then," Mr. Olandra said with a smile. "Maybe by the time Sonic gets back she'll be wide awake."

"I hope so..." Tails said. "I'm worried about her."

Suddenly, some mumbling escaped from Carrie's mouth. She was moaning a bit.

"Hey, it looks like she's waking up now," Knuckles said.

The three of them gathered around her bed. She rolled around a bit in her bed, and murmured something. However, none of them could tell what she was saying.

"Looks like she's having a nightmare," Mr. Olandra noticed.

"Nightmare?" Tails repeated. "Maybe she's dreaming about Nack."

The wolf's speech was starting to become more coherent, and they could pick out some words.

"Here...he's... Aaah... Help..."

"Got no idea what that means," Knuckles said, folding his arms.

"Sssh, quiet," Tails said, moving an ear closer to her mouth.

"Help him... Help Sonic... He's here... Downstairs... Hurry..."

Tails' eyes widened in fright.

"What's she saying?" Mr. Olandra said.

"'Help Sonic. He's here, downstairs. Hurry.'" Tails repeated. "That's all I could catch."

"She's having a dream about what's happening right now?" Mr. Olandra said. "That's just strange."

"No wait, it makes sense," Knuckles interrupted. "She has the ability to see when someone is about to commit a crime, so..."

It finally hit Tails and Knuckles. They stared at each other in shock, realizing what was going on. Before they could make their move though, a metal canister flew into the room through the windows. It clattered across the wooden floor, as purple gas started to fill the room.

**One minute earlier…**

Sonic opened a door in the lobby, and the small phone room greeted him on the other side. A desk sat off to the left, with a large phone box on it. A cable ran out of it and through the nearby window, to a satellite dish for communications and a solar panel to provide power. On the right side of the room was another door. Sonic guessed it was a broom closet.

He paid none of that any mind though, as he picked up the phone and held it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said into the mouthpiece.

There was no reply.

"Hello?" Sonic said again, a little more worry in his voice.

"Hello there Sonic!" a familiar voice on the phone said. Sonic recognized it as Nack.

"You?" Sonic said, surprised. His voice hardened. "What're you scheming now?"

"Never mind about me Sonic. I'd like you to answer a riddle first. What is small, dark, and hides skeletons?"

"Huh?" Sonic said. "What the hell does any of this have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the damn question."

"A coffin?"

"Nope. But you're getting there. The word's got the same amount of letters as 'coffin', and it starts with the same letter too."

Sighing, Sonic thought about it for a moment. However, he really didn't know what Nack was talking about.

"No idea," Sonic said.

He felt someone press a gun barrel against his back. He turned his head, and saw that Nack was standing right behind him, a cell phone in one hand and a tranquilizer gun in the other one. The closet door behind him was open, so Nack had been hiding in there.

"It was a closet, idiot," Nack said. He started to squeeze the trigger on his gun.

However, Sonic didn't give him the chance to fire a shot. He dropped to the floor and did a sweep kick, which successfully knocked Nack's feet out from under him. With a howl, the weasel crashed to the floor, lying in a prone position. Sonic then jumped on top of Nack's back and pinned him to the floor.

Before Sonic could knock him out though, Nack's tail curled up and then the tip of it pressed against Sonic's chest. The hedgehog was sent flying up into the ceiling with a loud crash, and then he fell back to the floor again with a thud. Sonic shook his head, and then looked up to see Nack pointing his tranquilizer gun at him. A wicked grin crossed his face as he put his finger around the trigger. Before he could fire though, the entrance door into the phone room crashed open. Sonic looked over to see four guards standing at the door with their swords drawn.

"Damn!" Nack screamed.

He pulled a small blue canister out of his pocket and threw it at the three of them. It exploded with a bang, and a bright flash filled the room. Sonic rubbed his eyes, but he couldn't see a thing. The whiteness of the light in his eyes just wouldn't go away. About five seconds later when the light finally faded, Nack was long gone. The window in the room was open, and a breeze outside was causing the shutters to swing back and forth.

"Argh, he got away!" one of the guards shouted. "We nearly had him!"

Sonic stood up and looked out the window. Guards ran about outside looking for Nack, but he appeared to be long gone. The guards inside the room stepped forward to Sonic.

"Sorry we were too late to help," one of them, a koala said.

"That's all right," Sonic said. "At least you scared him away before he could shoot me."

"Don't worry, we'll hunt him down soon enough," he replied. He then turned to face the other guards. "We'd better make sure that Tails and Knuckles are all right too."

With that, the guards all hurried for the stairs. Sonic moved to follow them, but one of the guards grabbed him by the arm, and Sonic turned to look at him. He had the face of a gray-colored fox.

"What are you doing?" Sonic said.

"I'm going to take you to the barracks," he replied. "It'll be safer there."

"I don't need that," Sonic said.

"I'm sorry, but it's orders," he retorted. "By the way, I'm sure the guys upstairs are doing the same thing with Tails and Knuckles. We should get you to our barracks, where it's safer."

"Well...if it's your orders, all right then," Sonic said, giving in.

The guard nodded in reply.

"Good, now follow me," he said.

The fox ran out the front door of the building. While he was clearly running as fast as he could, Sonic could easily keep up with him while jogging. After they'd run a couple of blocks, he turned into an alleyway. Bags of trash littered the area, and the whole place smelled awful.

"Are you sure this is the way there?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, it's a shortcut," the guard replied. "Don't worry, because we're almost there. It's just around this turn here."

He turned around the next corner out of sight. Sonic stepped around to follow him, and found a silenced tranquilizer gun pointed right at his face. The guard was holding it. Before Sonic could react, he fired. The dart hit him right between the eyes, and quickly injected the tranquilizer solution into his head. He went unconscious before his body even hit the ground.


	7. Chapter 6: The Chase

**Chapter 6: The Chase**

**September 2nd, 2316 – 6:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna**

The purple _Sconocea _gas continued to ooze into Carrie's room from its container. Instinctively, Knuckles, Tails, and Mr. Olandra backed out of the room and into the hallway. At the same time, they kept their eyes on the window, in case the thrower decided to jump through it to follow up on his surprise attack. However, the opening rapidly disappeared behind the gas. At the same time, they could hear footsteps coming from downstairs. Those would be the guards, so help was on the way most likely.

"Wait!" Mr. Olandra yelled. "What about Carrie?"

Tails gasped. Who knew what could happen to Carrie if she got hit with a second dose of the gas? He started to head inside the room, but an arm latched around his shoulder.

"Don't do it Tails!" Knuckles said. "The gas is too strong!"

"Carrie's in there!" Tails shouted, struggling to break free. "What if getting more of that gasputs her in a coma or something?"

"But how are you gonna get through that stuff to save her?"

That was a good question. How would he get past the gas? Suddenly, an idea hit him.

"Hold on Knuckles," Tails said, looking up at him. "Let me try something."

"Well, okay then..." Knuckles said, letting him go.

Tails walked over to the doorway and stood with his back facing to the inside of the room. Then he grabbed onto both sides of the doorframe, and began to spin his tails like a fan. Holding onto the doorframe allowed him to whirl his tails continuously without moving forward. Within seconds, all the gas had been blasted back out of the room through the window.

"Good work Tails!" Knuckles shouted.

Meanwhile, the guards had made it upstairs.

"What's going on here?" a koala guard shouted.

"Someone just threw a can of sleeping gas through the window!" Mr. Olandra cried, pointing to the window inside Carrie's room.

The guard ran to the window and looked outside, then he turned around.

"I don't see anyone out there. By the way, Nack was downstairs just now and he tried to capture Sonic."

"What?" Tails said with shock. "Really?"

"Yeah," the koala said. "But he didn't get Sonic and ran away instead. Still, we better watch out for this gas attacker. He might be backing up Nack. I'm going to go up to the roof to try to get a better view of the surroundings."

The koala rushed back to the stairwell and headed for the roof. Tails and Knuckles followed after him. The sun had nearly set behind the mountains in the distance, and visibility was fading fast. If they didn't find the gas attacker soon, he'd slip away in the dark. The fox began scanning his eyes across the windows in the nearby buildings, and followed up by moving his eyes to look across the rooftops.

Then he saw something. A figure dressed in a dark black jumpsuit was leaping across the rooftops to the west, straight towards the setting sun. Tails almost missed him, because of the bright light coming from that direction.

"Over there!" he shouted, pointing a finger towards the runner.

Knuckles and the koala whirled around to see the fleeing figure.

"Let's go get him Tails!" Knuckles shouted beside him.

While Tails leapt into the air and started spinning his tails, Knuckles jumped upwards and fanned out his dreadlocks to glide. The two of them were definitely moving faster than the mysterious attacker, owing to the fact that he had to run around obstacles that they could easily fly over. He had to jump from building to building, and waste time getting past things on the rooftops like clotheslines and other clutter. However, while Black Jumpsuit Boy was no Sonic, he was definitely an above average runner. Tails and Knuckles were being given a run for their money to keep up.

As Knuckles and Tails got closer, they could see that he seemed to actually be a she. The skin-tight outfit revealed a figure that was definitely not a male's. She looked to be a fox, judging from her purple foxtail and pointy ears.

_That doesn't matter right now though. We've nearly got her..._

Tails swooped down to grab the vixen from behind. She turned back a moment, looking panicked, and then glanced forward again. Tails hovered just ten feet behind her, and he gained fast. Tails reached out with his arms to grab the vixen, but at the last second she jumped down into a gap between the roofs.

"Argh!" Tails screamed.

He looped around and headed back for the gap in the buildings. Knuckles turned around as well. Tails dived down into the alleyway she'd jumped into, and landed with a thump on the cobblestone ground. Looking around, he saw that he'd landed in a dead end alleyway, with only one way to reach the street from here. The street ahead of him was thronging with people. Knuckles landed with a thump beside him, and started running into the crowd.

"Hurry up Tails!" the echidna shouted. "She's getting away!"

Tails dashed after Knuckles, jumping into the crowd with him. Within seconds though, he realized that this would be a fruitless search. This place was teeming with so many people that it was almost impossible to move. Picking out one specific person in this mess of people would be all but impossible in these conditions, especially with the fading light. As Knuckles continued to shoulder his way through the crowd, Tails tugged him on the arm.

"What is it Tails?" he asked as he turned around, looking furious.

"Knuckles, I think we've lost her," Tails answered, sounding sad. "We're not going to be able to find her with this many people around."

Knuckles turned to face the crowd again, and let out a sigh.

"I suppose you're right..."

The two of them walked back to the alley they'd been in before, and sat down on a discarded wooden crate.

"So...what do we do now?" Knuckles asked.

"I dunno... We could go back to the hotel?" Tails answered.

He looked down at the ground, wondering who that mysterious vixen was. Was she in league with Nack? Or was she a totally different bounty hunter? Whatever the answers were, they weren't going to be getting them now.

His gaze then fell upon a folded-up piece of paper on the ground at his feet. He picked it up, and opened the paper. On it there was a quick note jotted down:

"_Arthara T." _

"What you got there, Tails?" Knuckles asked, looking over to see what it was.

"Some kind of note. I think that fox dropped it. It says 'Arthara T.'. Who's that?"

"No idea," Knuckles replied. "Anyway, what's say we head back for the hotel now? Maybe the soldiers know what it means."

"I guess you're right," Tails said, folding up the paper again. "Let's get going."

The two of them took to the air and were soon on their way back to the hotel. By this time, the sun had set below the horizon. Lit candles and oil lamps could be seen in windows, in addition to larger torches being lit here and there outside to help visibility in the streets. However, they hardly helped chase the shadows away. Tails wanted to get back to the hotel as fast as possible, before it got too dark to see.

Fortunately though, they managed to reach their destination quickly. A group of guards stood waiting outside the front door, and looked up as they saw Tails and Knuckles coming in for a landing. Once they were on the ground, Captain Relis, the pig who'd set up the security detail, came over to talk.

"Are you two all right?" he asked.

"We're fine," Knuckles asked. "How's Sonic?"

Relis winced a bit, like someone had just pinched him.

"He's not here."

"What?" Tails said. "Sonic's gone?"

Captain Relis shook his head slowly, as his helmet was cradled at his side.

"I'm sorry Tails, but we've checked the entire neighborhood. He's not here."

Tails just stared at him in shock, not knowing what to say. He knew Sonic wouldn't just vanish without warning them first, if he could help it. The only other possibility was that he'd been captured, or hurt badly, or even killed. But how could that happen? He was able to beat Metal Sonic! A few regular people shouldn't be able to take him out just like that!

"But I thought you said before that Nack didn't capture Sonic," Knuckles said back, before Tails could say something. "And we saw the other attacker get away."

"I don't know what's going on, Knuckles," Relis answered. "But I do remember one strange thing my troops mentioned."

"What's that?" Tails asked, stepping closer to hear.

"After Nack ran away, my men say they went upstairs to see if Tails and Knuckles were all right. Sonic was following them at first, some said, but one of the guards stopped him."

"What did this guard look like?" Tails asked.

"Well, nobody bothered to take a good look at him, I'm afraid."

"Argh!" Tails growled, in frustration. He was hoping they'd get a new lead as to where Sonic was.

"He's gotta be the one who captured Sonic," Knuckles said. "This is strange though. First there was Nack wanting to capture us, and then that ninja girl on the rooftops, and now this guy in disguise as a soldier. What's going on?"

"You two and Sonic must have bounties on your heads or something," Relis answered, pointing a finger at Tails and Knuckles.

"Yeah...that's what we guessed earlier..." Knuckles groaned. "Couldn't they have waited till our vacation is over?"

"You know, if there's already three people after you, who knows how many more bounty hunters are out there?" Relis said. "We need to get you somewhere safer, where you can hide out until we figure out what's going on."

"I don't wanna sit around and do nothing!" Knuckles screamed. Everyone was startled into stepping back a little. "I want to go hunt these people down! How about you Tails?"

Tails was about to say yes, but then he thought more about the situation they were in. It wouldn't be the same as fighting Robotnik. With the mad doctor, they knew exactly who was against them, and exactly what to attack. This time though, almost anyone could be a potential enemy. Even worse, Tails probably wouldn't know who the bad guy really was until it was too late.

On the other hand, Tails did not like the idea at all of just waiting inside a bunker or something for the whole thing to blow over. He wanted to be out there, and do something to help, to change what was happening. Tails did not want to just wait around for the news that Sonic was dead or being held hostage somewhere. His bond with the hedgehog ran deeper than that of a blood brother, and he didn't want anything terrible to happen to him.

That decided it for him.

"I wanna go too," Tails said, choosing to side with Knuckles.

Captain Relis smiled a little, although it faded away after a moment.

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble," he started. "But you don't have the faintest idea what these bounty hunters are up to, or where they are, or anything. How are you gonna chase after them?"

Tails frowned. He hated to admit it, but Captain Relis was right. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find the mercenaries without any clues. They'd need pure luck if they were going to just stumble across them...

He then remembered the piece of paper that they'd found after they'd lost the mercenary who'd escaped them via the rooftops. Unfurling it, he once again read the enigmatic words written there: _"Athara T."_ It wasn't much, but it was something. At least they had one lead.

"What do you have there Tails?" Captain Relis said, squatting down to get a better look.

Tails handed the paper to the pig, and he glanced at it thoughtfully for a few seconds.

"Do you know what this means?" Tails asked.

"Oh yes, I do," Relis replied. "Where'd you get it?"

"We found this right after the attacker we were chasing on the rooftops got away," Knuckles said. "I think she may have dropped this by mistake. Anyway, who is this 'Athara T." person?"

"It's not a person," Relis said, looking at Knuckles. "It's a place: Athara's Tavern."

"You know it?" Tails asked.

"Of course I do," Relis answered with a grim look. "It's only the seediest bar in this entire city. We've had lots of trouble with the neighborhood around there. Drugs, excess alcohol, brawling, that sort of thing... I can take you there if you like. Maybe we can find more clues there."

"Sure!" Tails replied, a grin crossing his face. "That would be great!"

"Well, come on then," Relis said, as he walked down the street. He pulled out a torch from his utility belt and lit it by using a torch hanging from the Brenbar Inn's wall. "We better hurry. It's getting dark, and fast."

He walked at a brisk pace down the street, as Tails and Knuckles followed after him.


	8. Chapter 7: Regrouping

**Chapter 7: Regrouping**

**September 2nd, 2316 – 7:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

Canma Neuyan panted as she walked down the street, totally out of breath from trying to get away from Tails and Knuckles. Luckily for her though, she seemed to have lost them a few minutes ago. A red cloak now draped over her stealth clothes, to keep them from arousing attention from the locals.

She reached into an interior pocket to pull out a slip of paper. On it was written the place that she and Nack had arranged to meet after their mission was over. However, she realized the pocket was empty. Canma felt around in it again, this time more carefully, but the note still wasn't there. The vixen let out a soft sigh, but she wasn't worried.

_It's fine. I'm pretty sure I remember the place's name. _

While Canma was happy to have escaped Tails and Knuckles, at the same time she was angry at herself for not taking advantage of the opportunity to capture one or both of them. She'd been too focused on escaping for that thought to even cross her mind.

_Weren't you the one who said the plan of splitting them up with that phone call would be the perfect idea to capture all of them? You said they'd be weaker if they weren't all together, but it looks like that still wasn't enough to do the job. I'm definitely not looking forward to meeting Nack at the rendezvous point. He's going to rub this all up in my face, I bet._

Like it or not though, she finally got to where she was headed: Athara's Tavern. This seedy place sat near the edge of town; the local soldiers stationed here often overlooked the area. Even as Canma walked past the graffiti-covered front wall of the tavern, she could hear a drunken brawl breaking out inside. There was a lot of shouting and cursing, which was quickly followed up by the sound of a table being smashed to pieces, probably as one of the brawlers fell on top of it.

Fortunately for Canma, her destination wasn't inside the bar, but rather in the alleyway behind it. There would be less chance of her conversation with Nack being overheard there.

However, as she walked into the alleyway, Nack was not the first person she met. Instead, she found herself looking at a pig, dressed in filthy rags. He was also wielding a long dagger, which was vaguely pointed towards her throat. The tip of the knife wavered around some, indicating he'd been drinking recently. A few drops of saliva escaped his filth-encrusted lips, causing Canma to wince in disgust.

"Hey baby..." he mumbled, trying to speak through his drunkenness. "Wanna go... get drunk...? Then maybe we can...go back to my place and...uh...uuuuuh..."

Rolling her eyes, Canma grabbed his knife arm in one swift motion, and then snapped her own arm backwards before she released her grip. As a result, the pig was sent crashing into a pile of garbage that had built up in the alleyway. A cloud of flies flew up all around him, as he tried to stand again. He wasn't successful though, and just flopped back down into the filth, burying his nose in a pile of discarded potato skins. Meanwhile, Canma rubbed the hand she'd used to grab him across her cloak. His sweat had gotten on her.

"Disgusting pig," she mumbled. "Can't believe I actually touched you."

Looking back down the dark alley, she saw Nack standing a short distance away with a flashlight in hand. He leaned against the wall near the back door, and there was a most gratifying smirk on his face.

"Having fun with the locals?" he asked.

"Oh yes, lots of fun," Canma said, as she continued to wipe her hand across her coat.

Nack got off of the wall, standing full on his own weight.

Changing the topic to the business at hand, Nack asked, "Did you capture Tails and Knuckles?"

Canma let out a sigh. She hadn't been looking forward to doing this, what with this being her plan and all.

"No," she said.

Nack's eyes widened in surprise, but then he steeled his gaze in anger. Closing her eyes, Canma started to explain.

"Maybe Tails and Knuckles aren't as stupid as I thought they were. Tails was smart enough to use his tails to blast the sleeping gas back out of the room. Then I had to run for my life across the rooftops to get away."

Nack let out a low growl. "I thought you said you were a pro at this!"

Canma let out a sigh. There wasn't anything she could say in her defense. She decided instead to ask Nack about how his part of the job went.

"Well, what about you Nack?" She asked. "Did you capture Sonic?"

Nack frowned, and looked off at the back door of the tavern to avoid her eyes. He muttered something under his breath that she couldn't make out.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I didn't capture Sonic either, Canma," he said. "He attacked me before I could knock him out, and then the guards ran in and screwed everything up. I had to run away too."

"Great!" Canma said, waving her arms around. "Just great! So all of our work has been for nothing! No twenty million demens!"

With a sigh, the weasel closed his eyes and leaned against the wall again. Canma did the same on the other side of the alley. For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. However, Nack spoke up.

"There's one strange thing I noticed," Nack said.

"What is it?" Canma asked, as she opened her eyes.

"You know when we were jumping across the rooftops to get to the hotel, so we could get around the guards? I saw a black truck parked in one of the alleys near the hotel."

"Yeah? What about it?" Canma asked.

"While I was escaping, I saw the same black truck speeding away from the hotel really fast. I just think it's kind of strange that the truck started leaving at the exact same time I was leaving."

Canma nodded. "That is a bit curious, although I don't know what it could mean. It was probably just coincidence."

"You think? I've got a funny feeling about it..."

Suddenly, Nack's eyes widened as he looked down the alleyway behind Canma. He raised a finger to point at something behind her.

"Hey! It's the truck I saw!"

Canma whirled around and looked down the passageway. Sure enough, there was a black sport utility vehicle stopped at the entrance to the alley. It looked rather old and beat up, due to the many scratches and rust spots all across the metal. A bush guard covered the front grille of the truck, complete with fog lights and a tow cable. More lights were attached to the roof, and a spare tire hung from the back.

Without a second thought, the two of them hurried towards it. As they got closer, Canma couldn't help but notice a sliver of blue quills showing in the window of one of the rear passenger doors.

"He's got Sonic!" Canma shouted.

She reached the driver's door handle and pulled it on it. Unfortunately, the door was locked. The driver looked out his door's window at her, and she saw it was a gray fox, with strange yellow eyes. He had a puzzled look on his face for a moment, but then his eyes went wide. He turned away to look back through the windshield. A plume of white smoke rose up from the rear tires of the truck, and it took off with surprising acceleration for such a large vehicle.

The sudden jolt of speed sent Canma tumbling to the ground. Her body slammed hard into the cobblestone street. Meanwhile, Nack dashed after the SUV, firing his revolver at the back of the truck as it sped away. While Canma watched as she got up, she saw it wasn't going to do any good. If it were daytime, things would be different and there would be no way for that truck to escape. The streets clogged up with carts, pedestrians, and such during those hours. But at night the streets had nary a soul wandering about, allowing the SUV to easily get up to speed and outrun someone on foot.

The vehicle was already leaving them behind, as it flew around a corner. It jumped the curb and two of its wheels went up into the air for a second, before slamming back down. Canma jumped up to give chase with Nack, but she was pretty sure it was too late to catch up anyway. As she and Nack rounded the next corner, the black SUV had become nothing but a dot in the distance.

"Dammit!" Canma screamed. "He's getting away with Sonic!"

"So what do we do now then?" Nack asked, "Ninja Girl?"

Canma looked at him, giving him an angry glare.

"Hey! It's not my fault you were stupid enough to let Sonic kick your ass just like Knuckles did!"

"Yeah? Well it was your idea for us to try to ambush them at the hotel, and look how that turned out!"

"You just didn't follow the plan right! That's all!"

"Neither did you! You ended up getting chase by the bounties you were supposed to capture!"

"Well at least I got away unscathed! I'm amazed you haven't gotten killed yet, with how much you've gotten beaten up!"

She heard footsteps coming up from behind the two of them, and whirled around. A rat was standing there, dressed in a cook's outfit. Maybe he worked at Athara's Tavern.

"What're you looking at?" Canma shouted.

The rat jumped in fright, and ran off. She looked back to Nack to continue the argument, but then she had a thought. Her eyes began to rove around the surrounding area. Canma saw that everyone in the nearby vicinity was staring at them. There were even some people hanging out of their house windows. Canma felt her face blush red. She'd been so caught up in the argument she didn't realize that they'd gotten an audience. She leaned over towards Nack's left ear.

"I don't think this is the best place to talk about this," she whispered.

"Likewise," Nack whispered back. "We better get out of here, before someone decides to call for some soldiers."

Canma glanced over Nack's shoulder, and her eyes widened in fright. "I'm afraid it's a bit late for that."

Nack turned around to see what she was looking at. Down the road, they saw a crowd of people bearing torches approaching. Canma caught glimpses of heavy armor and helmets in the light of the flames. This conversation was definitely over. Nack and Canma looked at each other, before the two of them sprinted down the street in the opposite direction.

**Later, at Nack's temporary hideout...**

"So...what are we gonna do then to find this fox guy and Sonic again?" Canma asked, sitting on top of a barrel in the room. "We don't have any leads on where he is."

"It's not over until we cross the finish line," Nack said, as he sat on his own barrel. "That fox may have Sonic, but he's still got a long way to go before he reaches the client. We've still got time to get back our blue friend."

"What about Tails and Knuckles? Do you think it's a good idea to just forget about them while we look for Sonic?"

"Sure it's a good idea."

"Explain that one to me."

"Our fox friend probably has Sonic on some kind of knockout drug right now. You saw how he looked to be asleep, from what we saw of him in the car. It would be too dangerous to transport Sonic while he's awake. As for ignoring Tails and Knuckles, consider this: to earn the same amount of money, we can face off against one ordinary fox and steal his bounty, or we can face off against a mutant fox and an echidna, both of which can blow holes through entire armies of robots without breaking a sweat."

Canma blinked. "...Good point."

"Second, after we get Sonic, we can use him as a hostage to lure Tails and Knuckles out, and then we can capture them too."

Canma grumbled a bit under her breath. Apparently she didn't like it that Nack had a better idea this time. The vixen gave a little shrug.

"All right, you've got me convinced," she said. "First things first though. We gotta find out a way to locate that gray fox, before he escapes. This entire plan depends on it."

"I know one place we can start: Merc Net."

"Merc Net?" Canma asked. "What's that? A net for catching mercenaries?"

Nack rolled his eyes.

"You're out of the loop, aren't you warrior princess? First it was handshakes, and now it's computers."

"Well sorry, but I'm a pure-blooded Tneicnan," she snapped, folding her arms. "And you know how much we feel about human technology and culture. Humans and their machines disgust me. I can hardly stand to ride on that hover bike of yours."

Nack shuffled in his seat a bit.

"All right...well let me try to explain this in a way you can understand it. Basically, Merc Net is a computer network-"

"A compy whaty?"

"Computer network. It's like a..." Nack let out a sigh. "Well…uh…Merc Net is kind of like a library on mercenaries all over this world, and it's stored on computers like the one I have."

He gestured towards a laptop he had sitting on another barrel nearby.

"But how would you fit all the books and paper you'd find a library on that tiny little machine? I mean, it's even skinnier than just one book!"

"It's stored digitally."

"Digi-what?"

Nack sighed, as he cracked open the computer.

"Never mind. I'll just start looking to see if I can find any data on that fox."

As the laptop booted up, Nack pulled out a thermos from a nearby bag and sipped some coffee from it. At the startup screen, he went online and started hacking into the profile server of Merc Net. He typed in a search query for one mercenary, based on what they knew about the fox they'd seen before. Nack put in his vehicle, in addition to his fur color, eye color, and species. Lines of text spread across the screen as he continued to type. When Nack was finished, he hit the Enter key.

_**Searching... Four matches found! **_

_**Top result: **_

_- "Half" _

_**Secondary results: **_

_- "Forty-Six" _

_- "Bob Fetta" _

Nack clicked on "Half". A screen popped up displaying the face of a young gray fox. Messy gray hair flopped down over his face, partially obscuring his yellow eyes. However, to Nack, those eyes sure didn't look normal for a fox. He didn't like looking at them. He decided instead to scan the information displayed beneath the picture.

"That's him," Canma said, suddenly appearing beside Nack.

She had appeared so suddenly that she was simply _there_, like a ghost. Nack nearly jumped out of her seat with how she appeared like that. She didn't seem to take any notice though, as she continued to talk.

"That's the person I saw in the truck, I'm sure of it."

Nack scanned what personal data he could find in the profile.

_**Codename:** Half_

_**Actual Name:** Unknown _

_**Species:** Arctic Fox_

_**Fur Color:** Gray_

_**Eye Color:** Yellow _

_**Age:** Unknown (appears 20-25) _

_**Birthplace:** Gerrant, Cictra _

_**Current Residence:** Unknown _

_**Special skills: **Marksmanship, gun maintenance and modification, infiltration _

_**Distinguishing Features: **Yellow wolf eyes, tail is only half the length of a regular foxtail_

"I know about this guy," Nack said, as a frown crossed his face. "He's been chosen over me for a fair few jobs, and that doesn't happen much at all with anybody else. I can't stand him. Every time someone says they've hired him, I can see his stupid foxy face smirking at me."

"Well, do you know anything special about him?"

"He likes to complete missions in the fastest and most efficient way possible, so he gets a lot of his assignments done in record time. That's one reason why he's got the nickname "Half": he finishes jobs in half the time that most other mercenaries would take. Also, his "efficient" policy applies to battles as well. He will look for the fastest way to defeat you, and tends to not bother toying around with opponents. That is, unless he thinks he can win faster that way."

"Sounds a bit...boring, don't you think?" Canma asked. "He seems to only care about the money, and not the thrill of battle. Also, how's this information gonna do us any good?"

Nack turned around to face Canma, with a small smirk.

"I think I know."

Canma rolled her eyes. "Well are you going to share your keen insights with me, or just stare at me with that stupid grin on your face?"

"I'm just a little surprised you didn't think of this first. Anyway, if he sticks to his fast approach to completing missions, he'll try to take the fastest route to the drop-off point."

"Then we better get going," Canma said, rushing towards Nack's hover bike, which was sitting on the ground next to them.

"Wait wait!" Nack said, waving his arms. "I'm not done yet! Jeez, you should marry Half. You two would be perfect for each other with how fast you wanna get things done."

"Well then get on with it and finish!" she snapped, folding her arms.

With a small sigh, Nack started talking again. "What I think is, if we figure out the fastest way to reach the drop-off point, we can predict the places that Half is going to be passing through."

Canma nodded.

"I get it," she said, with a small smile. "We can ambush him at those places. And your hover bike is probably faster than his truck, since it can fly, so we can intercept him easy even though he's got a head start on us."

"You read my mind," Nack said with a wicked grin.

"Well all right then," Canma said. "Let's get started on mapping out his course."

Nack called up a map of Tneicna on his computer.

_I'm really looking forward to seeing you again Half_, Nack thought to himself. _All the jobs you stole from me before are chump change next to this one. I'll take that ten million demen hedgehog out from under your damn nose, and then we'll see who the richer mercenary is. _


	9. Chapter 8: Shining Eyes

**Chapter 8: Shining Eyes **

**September 2nd, 2316 – 9:00 PM – Tneicnan Wilderness **

Sonic slowly began to wake up, as the sleeping drug he'd been shot with wore off. The floor he rested on moved up and down, and he wondered why that was. More sensations came to him. Now Sonic noticed he could hear some kind of purring sound, like a motor. He guessed he was riding a car or something.

As Sonic's eyes began to drift open, the first thing he noticed was a window covered with bars. Dark tree branches flew past in the starry night sky, casting dark shadows all across Sonic's body. He turned to the left, and saw two seats facing away from him, towards a brightly lit dashboard. The dash's lights twinkled like stars in the darkness of the car. However, he was separated from the front row by another set of bars. It looked like whoever owned this truck had replaced the back seat with a cage, and Sonic was locked up inside it. The hedgehog started to move to sit up.

Hearing the sound, someone sitting in the passenger's seat up front turned around to look at him. He wore a brown cloak, which completely covered his body except for his face. However, the hood darkened his face so much that Sonic could only see glowing red eyes underneath it. Sonic instinctively moved away a bit, before he felt his back hit the rear of the cage. Meanwhile, Cloak Guy turned to face the person sitting in the driver's seat.

"Hey...our friend's awake," he said. There was a metallic edge to his voice.

The person in the driver's seat turned around to face him. This time, it was the gray fox that shot Sonic with the tranquilizer gun earlier. However, a completely different outfit covered his body. Instead of the Tneicnan armor, this time he looked like he'd just stepped straight out of a mercenary boot camp. A dark blue T-shirt covered his chest, and over the shirt was a flak vest. On his lower body he wore olive green cargoes.

That didn't catch Sonic's eye though. Instead, he felt himself glancing towards the fox's eyes. They didn't look normal for a vulpine. These eyes were an eerie yellow, and they flashed in the darkness like torches. They almost had a wolfish quality to them. He wondered why he hadn't noticed that earlier. Maybe it was because they seemed to light up more in the darkness. Before Sonic could get a better look though, the fox had already turned back to face the road.

"Have a nice rest?" he asked in a flat tone. "Sorry if the backseat of my SUV isn't too comfortable..."

Sonic was so taken aback by the way these two looked that he didn't even answer for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Wolf Eyes asked, again in the same bored tone.

Finally, Sonic managed to find his voice.

"Wh-what's going on here?"

"You'll be making us rich, that's what," Cloak Guy said, looking at him again with those creepy red eyes. "As soon as we get you to the client, that is."

Sonic narrowed his eyes.

"You mean you two are bounty hunters too?" Sonic growled.

"That's right, and we're not with that loser Nack either," Cloak Guy said. He chuckled a little. "You're worth ten million demens to our client, and we're taking it all for ourselves."

Sonic's eyes enlarged so much they looked like they'd pop out of his head.

"Ten million demens?"

"Yup, and Tails and Knuckles together are worth ten million demens too."

"Who in the world's gonna pay that much money for all of us?"

"Some guy calling himself Kenny Oviron."

Wolf Eyes' tail visibly twitched a bit in his seat. Sonic couldn't help but look at it for a moment. It was far too short and ragged for a fox's tail, going by what he remembered Tails' tails as looking like. In fact, it only looked long enough by half.

"He says he's a pig, going by his profile page on Merc Net," Cloak Guy said, continuing. "We got personally contacted by him to capture you. Didn't tell us why he needed you, although we don't really care with a reward like that."

Wolf Eyes let out a sigh.

"Do you have to tell him everything about this little job of ours?" he said, sounding extremely annoyed.

Cloak Guy shrugged. "What difference does it make? It's not like he's gonna be talking to anybody once we get him to our client. He'll probably torture him to death, or shoot him in the head."

"But why would he have us bring Sonic to him alive if he was gonna kill him anyway when we get him there?" Wolf Eyes asked.

Sonic smiled. If he had to be delivered alive, that meant they couldn't just kill him if he tried to escape. The bars and the sides of the truck looked flimsy enough to smash through...

"Sorry you two," Sonic said with a smirk, as he stood up. "But, I think I like being alive."

Sonic hunkered down and prepared to spin dash through the roof of the truck.

But before he could, Wolf Eyes pulled out a remote control and pressed a button on it. An electric charge surged through Sonic's body. The hedgehog cried out in pain, before he flopped back down onto the floor. Sonic rolled over and over again on the floor, clutching to himself and softly moaning.

"You aren't going anywhere," Wolf Eyes said. "Not as long as you're wearing that collar I put on you while you were asleep."

Upon hearing those words, Sonic felt around his neck and realized he was indeed wearing some type of metal collar. The band was about two inches thick, and he could feel the pinpricks of electrodes at intervals in the metal, sticking into his neck.

"If you do anything I don't want you to do, like try to break out of your cage, or run away, I press this button. While it won't kill you, you aren't going to feel like doing much of anything for a while. I just shocked you with the minimum charge. The pain will go away in a little bit, but the higher charges will have you roiling in agony for hours. Speaking of which…"

Wolf Eyes twisted a dial on the side of the remote control.

"Next time, you won't get off so easy if you try to escape. By the way, if you try to take it off or tamper with it, it's designed to automatically shock you. And when I'm asleep, my friend here's going to be wide awake and watching you, with one finger hovering over the shock button."

Sonic gave a glare at the fox, but then he turned back to Cloak Guy.

"Heh heh, that's right," Cloak Guy said, looking at Sonic with his red eyes glowing out from under the coat hood. "I never need to sleep, literally."

"Why?" Sonic asked.

"You know when Robotnik broke out of prison about eight years ago?"

"Err yeah," Sonic said. "My dad told me about it."

"Well, I was in the same prison, and that's when I escaped. Thank goodness too. I was on death row then."

"Death row...?"

"I am, or was a serial killer. I used to be known as the Sudo Butcher, but my real name is Redrum Sehliner. Anyway, it was great to escape, but I was really just crawling out of one hole and into another."

"What do you mean?" Sonic said.

"I was one of the first test subjects for one of Robotnik's then-new inventions, the roboticizer," Cloak Guy said. "He let all the prisoners escape in his ships after we got out of the compound, but then we all got taken to the roboticizers after that."

He pulled back the coat's hood, revealing the edgy face of a roboticized dog. That explained why his eyes were glowing red. Sonic backed away from him a bit. Quite frankly, roboticized people creeped Sonic out, especially up close.

"How come you've got your free will?" Sonic asked. "I thought my old foster dad Kyle Prower was an exception."

"Cuz my pal here saved me!" Redrum said, gesturing towards the Wolf Eyes. "Anyway, early roboticized Freedomians had a design flaw: the mind control program could be destroyed by a powerful electric shock. That's how I got my free will. Foxy here wandered into one of Robotnik's bases to find weapons, and then he zapped me with a tazer when I was about to capture him."

"What's your name?" Sonic asked, looking at the Wolf Eyes.

"You can call me...Half," the vulpine said, hesitating a little before he said Half.

"Oh come on man!" Redrum said, slapping his head. "Would it really hurt to give him your real name instead of your codename? It's not like he'll be talking to anybody once we deliver him to the client."

"I don't care," Half replied. "Telling people my real name will come back and bite me in the ass, I bet. Speaking of which, I can't believe you can just give him your life story like that. You're still on the run from the law, you know. That's why we can't take you to the de-roboticizers."

"Jeez, on the battlefield you're as cool as a cucumber, but off it you're like a coward, _Half..._"

Redrum let out a small sigh and slumped back into his seat, and the conversation came to a stop. Sonic smirked. Despite his situation, the bickering between the two friends made him chuckle a little. Sometimes it was like this when he talked with Tails or Knuckles.

_Tails and Knuckles... I bet they're worried sick about me by now. Carrie too. I wonder why they only captured me? _

"I gotta ask," Sonic said. "Why'd you only catch me? Why not Tails and Knuckles?"

"Ten million demens for just you is already overkill enough," Redrum said. "Until now, we've never had a bounty worth more than five hundred thousand demens. Besides Sonic, you're a handful enough by yourself, and meanwhile Nack will waste time trying to catch Tails and Knuckles."

"Damn it man!" Half snapped, as he punched Redrum in the shoulder. "He doesn't need to know this crap! Will you just keep your mouth shut before you spill all our plans out for him?"

"I don't see how telling him this stuff is a big deal! Like you said, he isn't going anywhere as long as we've got this remote control."

"But he's Sonic the hedgehog. Robotnik should have killed him so many times before, with his army and resources, but it's never happened. We've got no idea what he's capable of."

Half cast a fearful glance at Sonic, his yellow eyes not looking so hard as before. Sonic smiled a bit. Half was afraid of him, and Sonic knew it. Problem was, he couldn't do much to take advantage of that as long as they had that remote control. He'd need to figure out some way to get it away from them before they could press that button. Once that happened, he could probably get Tails to find a way to remove the collar from his neck, if he could find Tails again…

_One thing at a time, Sonic. You gotta get away from these two bozos first. _

"Hey Sonic!" Redrum said, turning back to Sonic. "See them creepy yellow eyes _Half _here has? It's cause his daddy was a wolf! And he used to live in Cictra too! Now you'll be able to kick our asses for sure knowing that!"

"Shut up you idiot!" Half shouted, looking away from the road.

He took one hand off the wheel to punch at Redrum. The roboticized dog easily blocked his first punch with one hand, and then wrapped his own arm around the fox's neck.

Sonic grinned a little at that...until he saw that they were about to head off the dirt road, and over a cliff. The lush forest valley beyond looked to have a steep drop, and they'd probably fall for thousands of feet before they hit the ground below.

"Guys! In front of us!" Sonic shouted, pointing to it.

The two stopped their fighting and looked out through the windshield. The truck was smashing through the brush on the side of the road, and headed for the edge of the cliff fast.

"Oh shit!" Half screamed, as Redrum released his grip on the fox.

Half grabbed the wheel again with his free hand and slammed down on the brakes. The vehicle came to a sudden, violent stop, sending Sonic crashing into the bars on the front of his cage. Meanwhile, the other two only lurched forward, due to their seatbelts. Sonic looked through the window again, and saw that the truck had stopped just short from the edge.

"Phew..." Half sighed. "We gotta stop arguing so much."

"Agreed," Redrum said.

Half turned back to look at Sonic and smiled.

"Thanks for watching out for us," he said.

"Yeah, you owe me one," Sonic said, returning the smile. "What do you say you let me go, since I saved your lives?"

Half and Redrum appeared to be contemplating it for a few seconds. They silently stared at each other, and then looked back at Sonic.

"Terribly sorry Sonic, but I'm afraid this isn't going to change anything," Half said hesitantly. "It's definitely not worth giving up ten million demens. We're still taking you to our client as we planned."

Sonic blinked, his mouth slipping open a little. Were they really this greedy?

"What?" Sonic said. "But we'd all be dead right now if I hadn't said something!"

"We know, but this still isn't gonna get us to let you go," Redrum said. "You're worth too much."

"You two are the most selfish bastards I've ever seen!" Sonic shouted. "Do you know that? You'd even make Robotnik green with envy!"

"It's not like your opinion really matters Sonic," Half said. "You're in no position to order us around, as long as we've got this thing."

He held up the remote control for the electric collar, and placed a thumb over the shock button.

"Now unless you want me to zap you again, you'll shut up. Got it?"

Sonic cast him an angry glare at the fox, then he looked away and slumped against the back of the cage.

"I'll take that as a yes," Half said, looking back to the car's controls.

He pulled the truck out of the underbrush and back onto the dirt road.

"How much further till we reach the client's coordinates?" Redrum asked, turning to Half.

"We'll probably be there in a few days or so." Half looked back at Sonic, who was glaring at him through the bars of the backseat cage.

"Do you really think it'll be that easy to get to the drop off point?" Sonic asked, with a smirk. "Tails and Knuckles are still out there, and they'll be looking for you."

"While your friends can make mincemeat out of Robotnik's army, it's no good if they don't have any target to attack," Half countered. "For them to find us out here in this big country would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"You just wait, Half. Knuckles is an excellent treasure hunter and tracker. If anyone can find a needle in a haystack, it's him."

Redrum chuckled a bit up front.

"One problem is that your friends probably think Nack kidnapped you," he said. "They'll be looking for him, and not us. We deliberately captured you at the same time Nack made a capture attempt of his own. Everyone saw him at the stadium, so they'll all assume it was him who kidnapped you. Meanwhile, nobody has seen us, so we'll get away scott free."

Sonic growled a bit. "Just wait. I bet something will happen to stop you, and soon."

"Heh, whatever," Half said, giving a lopsided grin. "I'm a little curious though. Why'd you pick that crappy hotel in the middle of the city? I'd think someone like you could get much better. I mean, those rooms didn't look too nice when I was checking them out in my soldier disguise."

"It is not a crappy hotel," Sonic retorted. "Besides, we got to stay there for free."

"Free? How's that work?" Redrum asked.

"We stayed with one of the maids. She's a friend of ours. Her name is Carrie Strafer."

All of a sudden, Half slammed his foot down on the brake and the car came to a sliding halt. Once again, Sonic was hurled against the bars of his cage.

_Damn...this is getting old. _

When he looked up, Half was staring him full in the face, his look totally serious.

"Carrie...Strafer?" he asked, curiously.

Sonic wondered why in the world Half was so interested in Carrie all of a sudden. Regardless, Sonic decided to shut down the conversation now.

"I'm not saying anything more about her," Sonic said, folding her arms. "I don't know what you want with her, but I bet it's not good."

Half pulled up the remote control and once again put his thumb over the button. It seemed like he went for that remote every time he didn't get his way.

"You will tell me Sonic. That is, unless you want me to shock you a few mor--"

A fiery explosion ripped apart the road in front of the truck, sending flames, smoke, and debris flying in every direction, completely clouding the view from the inside of the vehicle.


	10. Chapter 9: Firefight

**Chapter 9: Firefight**

**September 2nd, 2316 – 9:10 PM – Tneicnan Wilderness **

The windshield of Half's truck looked like a solid wall rather than a window, with how much it was covered with dirt. Half opened his door to take a look at the damage, and Redrum did the same. About ten feet in front of their car was a small crater where that part of the road once was. All foliage around the crater burned brightly, making Half sweat a little from the heat. Some of the trees had been torn from their roots and were now lying like logs on the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Half shouted.

"Looked like an explosion from an RPG or something!" Redrum said back.

"Heh heh, looks like someone already found us," Sonic chuckled. "I'll be out of here in no time."

Half was about to reply with some comeback, when he heard the sound of a familiar hover bike. He let out a sigh.

"It's Nack!" Redrum shouted, trying to be heard over the roaring. "I don't know how, but he found us!"

"Nack?" Sonic asked.

Half drew out his tranquilizer gun, before he turned around to point it back inside the truck. Instantly, he shot Sonic in the chest. The hedgehog yelped in pain, as he pulled the dart out of his body. It was too late to stop the sleeping drug though. It had already been injected intoSonic's body, as he started to slump down and succumb to its effects.

"We'll talk about Carrie later," Half said, as Sonic's eyes started to flutter closed.

"What did you do that for?" Redrum turned around to look at the fox. "And how did he know about Carrie?"

"I've got no idea about Carrie," Half said. "But, even with that collar on, I bet you Sonic could find a way to escape in the confusion of the battle."

Halfput the tranquilizer gun down on the dashboard, smiling.

"At least, if he's awake. Shooting him with the tranq gun guarantees we won't be having that problem."

"You've got a point," Redrum said, shrugging. "But, you shouldn't shoot him with that stuff so much. What if Sonic has some nasty side effects from the drugs?"

"Don't worry about it," Half said, slamming the driver's door. "Our client only said Sonic had to be delivered alive. He didn't say he had to arrive in perfect condition. Anyway Redrum, you keep an eye on the car and Sonic. I'll go out there and take out Nack."

Even though it was dark, a full moon helped with the lighting conditions a little. Furthermore, since Half had lupine eyes, he had excellent night vision.

"This car's not damaged," Redrum said, gesturing towards their vehicle. "We can still drive it."

"Ifwe don't get rid of Nack, he'll justattackus all the way to the drop-off site," Half said, as he pulled out his .45 and checked to see if it was fully loaded, which it was. "Better if we kill him now."

Redrum shrugged.

"I guess you're right."

As he heard the bike coming in for a landing, Half pulled out his knife from his shoulder holster. It shined brilliantly in the moonlight, and seemed to be in excellent condition. Satisfied, Half slipped it back into its sheath. Next, he ran over towards the back door of the truck, and opened it. Insidethe backa black case, which Half opened up to reveal a portable armory. A compact submachine gun, an assault rifle, and his trusty green sniper rifle were all there, with ammo and maintenance tools to match.

"Hey, Redrum, which gun do you want?" Half asked, as he looked over the weapons.

"Gimme the assault rifle," he said.

Half grabbed the long, black gun and its spare ammo from inside the case. As he was passing the items to Redrum, he started to formulate a strategy on how to defeat Nack.

From what Half knew about Nack on Merc Net, his weapons of choice were Wild West style revolvers. Half couldn't help but giggle to himself at the thought of a mercenary using such primitive weapons, compared to the technology that was available today. There were semi-auto handguns available that could hold twice or sometimes three times as many bullets. Not to mention, semi-autos could reload faster, shoot faster, and were easier to carry.

However, Half also knew that Nack would be one tough target to hit, with how he could bounce around using his elastic tail. Not to mention, his battle tactics tended to be unpredictable at best. The fox figured he'd need a gun that would be able to compensate for Nack's maneuverability. Since Redrum already took the assault rifle, that left his sniper rifle and the submachine gun.

Half chuckled a little to himself. That question was a no-brainer. The rapid fire of the submachine gun would allow him to lay down a lot of lead in a short amount of time, which meant more chances to hit Nack. He snatched it off of the small gun rack, and extended the shoulder stock. After putting a fresh magazine in through the receiver in the handle, folding down the forward grip, and collecting a few spare magazines, he was ready.

"Okay Redrum, I'm going out there," Half said, raising his SMG up.

"Good luck buddy," Redrum said, noddingto him.

Half silently nodded back, and dashed towards where he heard the bike's engine cooling down.

After bursting through the next thicket of undergrowth, Half saw the bike in the clearing. Nack was there, holding a large grenade launcher in one hand. That must have been what he'd used to blow up the road. Half didn't waste any time though, as he placed the laser sight on Nack's chest and opened fire.

Nack responded by using his tail to bounce upward away from the bike, dropping the grenade launcher in the process. Now he was somewhere in the trees over Half's head, and the fox jerked his SMG up as he tried to locate him again. Even with his wolf eyes, visibility was very poor in the forest, between the darkness and the massive amount of leaves blocking his vision.

"Jeez, you're trigger happy Half," Nack called out, his voice echoing through the forest. "You didn't even let me talk first before you started shooting!"

Half looked all around, trying to locate the source of the voice, but it was impossible with the acoustics. Nack sounded like he was everywhere in the forest at the same time, going by his voice. He'd fallen silent though, and now Half was left with only the sounds of the forest. He could hear the buzzing of bugs flying through the air, and the sound of a cool breeze whistling through the forest. The leaves all around him gently wafted in the wind, giving the forest an illusion of peace and safety.

Then Half heard it: a sound of leaves crinkling as someone walked on them, somewhere over to his left. He jerked his weapon towards the sound, but saw nobody in that direction. The only thing that greeted his eyes was darkness. He strained to listen for the sound again...

And then there were gunshots _behind him _instead of _in front of him_. Half strafed to the side, ducking behind a tree. Several more rounds hit the wooden tree, sending wood chips flying up in his face...and then they stopped. The fox whirled around from behind the tree, his SMG at the ready. He caught a fleeting glance of a purple blur jumping up into the branches overhead, before it moved over to another branch and out of sight.

_Goddamn that Nack is fast!_

Half realized he was at a disadvantage byfighting Nack in this forest. While the fox had superior weaponry, Nack could jump around on the tree branches, giving him more room to maneuver around in and a place to hide while he was reloading. Half knew if he was going to win, he had to take this fight to a place where there were no trees. Maybe he could head back towards that clearing Nack had landed in...

"Surprise!" Nack yelled, as Half felt a gun barrel press into his back. Going by his voice, he was standing directly behind Half. The fox started to raise his hands, letting his SMG hang around his neck by its strap. Nack chuckled a bit at Half's actions.

"Oh, that won't be necessary Half; I'm killing you now!"

But Half wasn't raising his hands to surrender. He snatched his knife out of its holster with his right arm, before whirling around and swinging the blade towards Nack. The blade cleanly missed though, as Nack slid backwards to dodge. Half got one quick glimpse of the weasel, with his cowboy hat, belt, and twin revolvers in hand. But before Half could bring his gun around, Nack had already jumped up into the trees again and disappeared.

_I'm sloppy tonight! That's the second time in two minutes Nack's gotten the drop on me. I better get moving, because staying here is suicide. _

Half picked a random direction, and ran that way as fast as he could. He tore through bushes and undergrowth, winding around tree trunks and jumping over their thick roots. All the while, Nack was bouncing across the tree limbs overhead, trying to target Half. A few bullets sent dust flying up into the air at his feet, but fortunately none hit. While Nack was agile, Half knew he wasn't the greatest marksman ever.

"Stop moving so I can shoot you!" he bellowed.

Seeing that there was a clear path ahead with nothing to trip over, Half whirled around and ran backwards. At the same time, he pulled his up SMG and fired into the trees. Nack gasped in surprise, as he jumped to the left. Half fired at him as he retreated, but within a few seconds the weasel was invisible again among the leaves. The fox searched the leaves, but he couldn't see anything.

Half decided to keep moving, in order to avoid a repeat of what had happened the last time he decided to stay still.Once again, he took off in another direction. This time though, he saw a clearing up ahead. Maybe it was the same clearing Nack had landed in, but Half wasn't sure. He'd been running willy nilly through the forest without checking to see where he was going.

From here, it looked to be about two hundred feet in diameter. There was something in the clearing though. Half couldn't make it out from this distance, but as he burst through the last of the trees he saw what it was. This definitely wasn't the place Nack landed, although it would do nicely for a counterattack. Rough, tan-colored brick walls, most of them going to about forehead height or lower, stuck out of the ground. It looked like they used to form the walls of buildings and fences. More bricks formed small roads going between the walls. Apparently, this was the site of an abandoned Tneicnan village. In any case, the residents seemed to have fled a long time ago. None of the structures had any roofs left, and weeds grew up all around the bricks.

All of this ran through Half's head in a second, as he dashed towards the closest of the walls. A hollow window was set in it, with a door made of rotting wood to the left of that. Not having any time to open a door with Nack right behind him, Half dived through the open window. He easily rolled into a stand on the other side, before seeking cover behind the wall to the left of the window.

More bullets flew in through the window, while others passed straight through the wooden door. One even tore a sizeable chunk of wood straight out of it, exposing termite damage. Regardless, Half was very happy to be out of that forest. There weren't any trees in this clearing for Nack to hide in, so he'd be limited to the ground.

"I know you're in there...Half!" Nack called out, firing a few more bullets through the door for good measure.

The entire door fell inwards, unable to stay up any longer between the gunshots and the termite damage. A cloud of dust rose up into the air from the door hitting the ground. Half felt like coughing from the dust, although he held them in to keep from making any sound.

_Maybe revolvers aren't such laughable weapons after all... He's pretty good with them. Add in that pogo tail, and it's amazing I haven't died yet. But that stops now. With no more trees to jump around in out here, one of his biggest advantages has been neutralized. It's time for the hunter and the hunted to change places. _

Halfwhirled around from behind cover and aimed out the window. He spotted the purple weasel approaching across the clearing, and placed the laser sight on his head. A torrent of bullets poured from the SMG's barrel, heading straight for Nack. The weasel ducked at the last second. The only thing Half succeeded in doing was shooting the weasel's hat off.

"Aaaaah!" Nack screamed. "You ruined my favorite hat!"

Meanwhile, Half drew another bead on Nack's head before he could jump away, and pulled the trigger. A click answered him from his gun.

_Shit! Why did I have to run empty at this exact moment? _

Nack took advantage of the opportunity and leaped to the left, out of sight. Meanwhile, Half ducked back behind cover, ejected the empty magazine, and slapped home a new one. As the fox was dropping the empty mag though, he noticed an old clay pot on the floor next to his feet. An idea formed in his head.

He picked up the clay pot, and glanced around the "room" he was in. Another window was off on the left hand side of the building. Half hurled the pot straight out the window, where it smashed against the wall visible on the other side of the alley.

"I heard that Half!" Nack called out.

_Good, because I wanted you to._

The vulpine followed up by taking the laser sight off of his gun, and positioning it on the first windowsill so that the red beam would be visible to anyone approaching the alley's window. Next, he moved quietly to hide in the darkest corner of the "room", to where he was out of sight of thealley window. He crouched down in the darkness, and started to listen for footsteps.

He heard them, but just barely. Soft, rapid steps approached the second window. Meanwhile, Half raised his SMG to fire when Nack appeared within view. Finally, Nack jumped in through the alley window with his revolver up, thinking he'd gotten the drop on Half. He jerked his gun up, leveling it towards the laser sight on the window.He realized he'd been tricked, and started to turn around. However, that was all Half needed to get the drop on _him_ instead. The fox opened fire, spraying thearea with a hail of lead.

Nack gasped and jumped back through the window into the alleyway, but Half didn't let up on his attack. The fox vaulted over the windowsill right behind the weasel, aiming his SMG one-handed even before his feet touched the ground. Nack had turned tail and was running away, but Half didn't intend to let him escape. The fox resumed firing as his feet hit the ground in the alley, but once again Nack ducked to the side to dodge the bullets. This time, the weasel jumped behind a building to the right, where the alleys intersected. Half charged towards the corner where Nack had just disappeared, so he didn't get a chance to hide again.

Suddenly, a loud gunshot sounded in the distance, but it didn't sound like Nack's revolvers at all. It had more of a dull boom sound to it. Then, off to the right, Half could see a bright red flare flying into the sky, over the treetops.

"Sorry Half!" Nack cackled. "We'll have to finish this fight later! I've got bigger fish to fry now!"

And with that, Half saw Nack jump straight up out of the ruins. After collecting his hat from the ground, the weasel bounced off into the trees. The fox raised his gun and opened fire, but by then Nack had already disappeared into the leaves. Half lowered the gun, wondering why Nack had suddenly decided to forfeit the fight after that flare was fired. Not to mention...who fired that flare? Half wasn't aware that there was someone else working with Nack on this mission...

Then he heard the sound of Nack's hover bike roaring to life, and he instantly knew what was going on. While Half fought with the weasel, his partner collected Sonic from the truck. Then Nack's buddy used the flare as a way to signal the weasel that he'd done the deed, and the weasel called off the fight to escape with the bounty.

_This entire fight was nothing but a smoke screen, and I played right into Nack's hands. Goddammit! I'm so stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! _

It seemed too late for Half to do anything now though. In the moonlight, he saw a hover bike zooming over the clearing, with two people riding on it. He recognized Nack in the driver's seat, but it turned out Nack's partner was actually a _her_ instead of a _him_.She was apurple vixen was dressed in some kind of light battle armor, dyed crimson red. Meanwhile, a cage dangled from a few chains beneath the craft. Inside the cage was Sonic.

Half pulled up his submachine gun and aimed at the jet engine underneath the hover bike. He fired off a few short bursts, but the bullets didn't appear to have any effect on the vehicle. The bike zoomed over the trees and faded from sight surprisingly quickly. After another few seconds, Half couldn't hear the bike anymore.

"Damn it!" Half screamed, firingthe rest of his clipinto the air.

After that, he stared at the spot where he'd last seen the bike, seething with rage as he breathed hard. It almost looked like smoke might start pouring from his nostrils. As suddenly as the rage washed over him though, it departed. Half realized something that he'd forgotten during his fight with Nack. He remembered that he'd ordered Redrum to guard Sonic.

_If she got Sonic, she would have had to get past Redrum. Then that means that Redrum is... Oh God no... _

Half took off running back into the forest, hoping that his friend wasn't dead.


	11. Chapter 10: A Change of Plans

**Chapter 10: A Change of Plans**

**September 2nd, 2316 – 9:20 PM – Tneicnan Wilderness **

Half finally made it back to his truck. The scene was more or less just as he'd left it before, with a few differences. The back passenger doors of his SUV were hanging wide open, and so was the door of the cage in the back seat. Sonic was nowhere to be seen. Redrum wasn't anywhere either...

"Redrum!" Half yelled. "Where are ya?"

He cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted again.

"Redruuuuuuuuuum!"

There was no reply.

Half dashed around to the other side of his truck, and saw something he wished he hadn't. Redrum's mechanical legs lay on the ground, next to the rear right wheel of the car. The assault rifle Half gave him earlier lay in the dirt next to the legs, as well as a whole mess of spent cartridges. Half dashed around to the back of the truck and spotted Redrum's torso. The robot dog lay still as death, with his usually red eyes as black as coals.

"Oh no..." Half whispered, as he got down on his knees next to Redrum's chest.

Judging from the characteristics of how he was split in twain, he'd been cut in half by a sharp blade in just one cut. Redrum must have gone down fighting, going by all the casings lying around. There were so many of them they twinkled like stars wherever the moonlight touched them.

Redrum could probably be repaired, although Half knew nothing about robotics. Sure, he was a fair car mechanic when the situation called for it, but robot stuff definitely wasn't his bag. Half wondered where he could get his friend fixed though. People would ask questions if they saw him asking for repairs on a roboticized Freedomian, especially one who was a convicted felon in a past life...

Redrum's eyes flickered to life, as the red glow returned. The fox snapped his own eyes to the robot to see what was happening.

There was a small humming sound, and then Redrum's neck and arms started moving. Static started spitting out of the speaker in the dog's mouth, although it was clearing up the more he talked.

"D-d-d-d…zzzzck! Don't worr---zzzzck!--about me. I---zzzck!---started up an alternate power supply in my---zzzck---chest."

Half gave a little sigh of relief, as he put his hand under Redrum's head and reared the torso into an upright position on the ground.

"Good," Nail said. "Don't scare me like that. What happened?"

Redrum spoke again, and this time the static in his voice was totally gone.

"I was guarding the truck like you told me to, when I saw this purple blur flashing through the trees around me. I tried to shoot it, whatever it was, but it was moving too fast. Next thing I know, this purple bitch of a fox cuts me in half with her sword and I lose power. I guess she was with Nack, right?"

"Yeah..." Half said. "I saw her on his hover bike just now. He just attacked us as a diversion, so she could steal away Sonic. Anyway, I'm glad you're all right."

"Heh heh, don't worry," he said with a grin. "I'm a machine. I can always be repaired if I get damaged."

"Yeah...you're right," Half said back with his own smile. "But with your past, it's going to be a risky business taking you somewhere to fix you up."

Redrum gave a little shrug with his arms, as Half moved to sit down Indian-style facing him.

"So...since Sonic's gone now, can I start calling you by your actual name again? I'm sick of using your code name."

Half chuckled and gave a nod. "Go right ahead."

"Ah...that's a relief." Redrum sighed. "Now I can call you Augustine Strafer again, or that nickname "Nail" that you prefer."

"Yeah..." Nail said slowly. However, he quickly switched to a more serious tone. "Anyway, since they've run off with Sonic, what do you say we go after Tails and Knuckles now? They're probably still in Nedlo, and we haven't gotten too far away from there yet. Plus, we'd still get ten million demens out of it."

Redrum nodded.

"Sounds like a plan, although it's gonna be risky business going back there."

"Yeah...no joke. They're probably gonna be looking for us this time. Anyway, while we're there, I think I'm gonna try to go see Carrie."

Redrum reared back, although since his face was hard metal and inflexible, he wasn't capable of showing a facial expression of shock to go along with the body language.

"What?" Redrum shouted. He grabbed Nail's shoulders and pulled the fox forward so they were face to face. "Are you crazy? We've got ten million demens to make! I don't wanna waste time going to see your stupid sister! Why do you care about her so much anyway?"

"First of all, she's not stupid," Nail said, pushing back from Redrum. He straightened out the wrinkles on his T-shirt from where Redrum had grabbed him. "Second of all, I haven't seen her in over a decade. Do you really think I can just pass up this opportunity?"

"Sure I do!" Redrum shouted. "We've got ten goddamn million demens on the line here! I think seeing her can wait a little longer!"

"I promise I won't take long," Nail said. "Come on...just gimme thirty minutes tops to go talk to her. Then we can get back to the mission."

"What happened to your policy of being so damn secretive all of a sudden? You wouldn't tell Sonic anything about the mission or yourself, but now you wanna go talk to Carrie and let _her _know all about you instead?"

"Well..." Nail started. "She is my sister you know, so she'd already know my name and everything. I wouldn't tell her about the mission though."

"Nail...are you crazy?" Redrum retorted. "You don't just go to your sister, who you haven't seen in eleven years, say 'Hey, it's me, your long-lost brother,' and then leave again after thirty minutes. I know you're gonna wanna hang around longer than that. Why do you care so much about seeing her anyway? Why can't it just wait a little longer?"

"It just can't, all right? I want to see her tonight."

"But I wanna get that reward money, and I wanna get it now!" Redrum shouted.

"I'm going to go see my sister, and you aren't going to change my mind. Besides, it's not like I'm abandoning the mission. I promise you I'm gonna be looking out for Tails and Knuckles once I'm done with Carrie."

"But the security around her hotel... You saw how beefed up it was when you were there. They've probably upgraded it again now that you and Nack have broken in there once before."

"So? We've still got that soldier's uniform, don't we? I can slip in there using that."

"Nail, wake up! This is insane!"

Nail let out a sigh.

"You're still not getting it Redrum. I've got these..." he said, as he patted his legs. "...and you don't. Because of that, I'm the only one who's capable of pulling off this mission, and there's nothing you can do to stop me from doing what I want to do, once I'm out in the city."

Redrum seemed to contemplate his options for a moment, as he seemed to realize that Nail was right. The fox was holding all of the cards, and the roboticized dog didn't have anything he could use to negotiate. After a few moments, he gave up trying to think of something he could say.

"Fine," he sighed. "Go ahead and see Carrie if you want, since I can't stop you anyway. But don't blame me if you wanting to see her ends up getting you thrown into jail."

Nail smiled broadly.

"Good... Thanks a lot Redrum," he said, as he picked up the dog's torso. "Let me help you into the car."

"Oh don't thank me," Redrum said, as Nail opened the front passenger door and placed Redrum on the seat. "I just know this won't end well."

Once Redrum was secured in place, he buckled his seatbelt. Meanwhile Nail ran to the other side and jumped in the driver's seat. With a twist of the ignition key, the truck roared to life. Nail spun the truck around back the way they'd come, towards Nedlo.

"Do you really care about her that much?" Redrum said, as he watched the trees go by.

"Yes I do," Nail said, turning to look at him. "I've got the scars to prove it."

"Scars? What do you mean?"

"I'll show you."

Nail stopped the car, and engaged the parking break. Facing Redrum, he pulled off his shirt and bulletproof vest. Nail moved aside the gray fur on his upper chest with his hands, and two six-inch scars forming a cross mark became visible on the bare skin below. They looked very old.

"I got these fourteen years ago, when I was protecting Carrie from a drunk with a knife."

"Whoa...really? Damn! I thought they were just some scars you got from some battle you'd been in. How'd it happen anyway?"

"It was ages ago…" Nail said, putting the shirt and vest back on. He slipped the car back into gear and applied the accelerator, sending it back down the road again. "I was seven, and Carrie was five..."

**Fourteen years earlier...**

_A light snow floated down out of the morning sky, as Augustine and Carrie walked down the street on the way to the bus stop. They trudged slowly through the snow on the ground, as their short legs made it difficult for them to walk through it. The city street was lined with building after building, most of them in a dilapidated condition. Graffiti, boarded up doors, boarded up windows, and trash surrounded the two of them. The snow helped to cover up some of the grunge of the area with its brilliant whiteness, but it was a losing battle. _

_Since their father couldn't afford a better home with the partly salary he earned from working at the airport, they had to deal with living in this neighborhood. Aug didn't especially mind though. He'd lived in this area of Gerrant, Cictra his entire life, and gotten used to the scenery. That didn't mean he wasn't cautious though. Augustine and Carrie stayed close to one another, just in case someone tried to jump them. _

_Finally, they arrived at the stop for their school bus. Since they were early, nobody else was there yet. _

_Aug frowned a bit, because he looked forward to talking to his friend Artie here every morning. It gave him something to look forward to, even with a day's worth of schoolwork about to be dumped in his lap. Most kids were frightened by Artie, since he was a polar bear and thus much larger than all of them. However, because the bear enjoyed wrestling, Artie had one day come up at lunch to ask Augustine about his father. His dad, a wolf named Gail Strafer, was formerly known as the street fighter Raging Gray. At first, Artie had only asked about Aug's father Gail, but over time a friendship formed between the two of them._

"_How early are we, Aug?" Carrie asked, breaking Augustine out if his thoughts._

_He turned to look at his sister. Despite their age difference, Carrie had already caught up with Nail in her height, due to her species. Wolves grew to be larger than foxes. Nail didn't like that at all, because he felt he should be the biggest due to being the firstborn. He really wished he'd inherited his father's species instead of his mother's. _

"_Hmm..." Aug said. "I'm not sure, but I think we're about fifteen minutes early." _

"_Oh great!" Carrie said, shifting her feet to get warmth back into them. "That means we gotta stand around out here in the snow and freeze!" _

_Aug smiled a bit. To tell the truth, this temperature felt about right for him._

"_Well...you were the one who wanted to get out here early," he said to the younger wolf. "You're so afraid that we're going to be late if we wait in the house." _

"_But I don't wanna get in trouble!" _

"_Then you get to be cold instead. I can't believe it still bugs you, when you've lived in this city on this mountain your whole life and hardly ever left it." _

"_And you'll never get to leave it again alive..." a thick, slurred voice said behind them. _

_Widening his eyes in surprise, Aug turned around to see who said that. A brown cat dressed in rags was standing behind them, brandishing a knife in one hand and an open can of beer in the other. He towered over both of them, since he was twice their height. Instinctively, Carrie moved to stand behind her brother, as Aug confronted the drunk. _

"_What do you want?" Aug asked. _

"_Give me all your money!" he shouted, stepping closer to point the knife at Aug's head._

_Despite the tenseness coursing through his body, Aug felt a little chuckle rise up inside him. The only money they had was for their school lunch, which meant it was chump change. Aug decided it would be worth giving up a day's lunch to avoid any trouble with this stupid drunk. _

_Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out four one-demen bills and handed them to the cat. The feline waited a moment to see if Aug would give him any more money, and then he growled as he brought the knife closer to the fox's head. _

"_That's all you've got?" he screamed. _

"_Well...yeah," Aug said, starting to feel a bit afraid since his plan didn't work. "We're just kids. We don't have anything else."_

_That only seemed to enrage the drunken man even further. With a shout, he slashed his knife across Aug's chest. Aug cried out as the knife cut all the way through his clothes, his fur, and down to the skin underneath. He looked down, and blood was already beginning to seep out and soak his clothes. Before he had time to do anything else, the drunken cat pushed him aside. Aug fell to the ground, but fortunately the white powdery snow helped to soften the fall a bit. _

"_Now it's your turn girl!" the drunk shouted, advancing on Carrie. "This is what you get for wasting my time!" _

_Carrie screamed, and ran past Aug down the street. However, since the cat was an adult and had much longer legs, he easily caught up with her. The feline's hand wrapped around the hood of her coat, and he yanked her backwards. She struggled to get away, but the feline just had too much strength since he was so much older. The drunk pulled out his knife and prepared to slice her just as he'd done to Aug. _

"_Stop!" Aug shouted, climbing to his feet as he held an arm to cover his wound. _

"_You want some more, pup?" the cat said, turning to face him._

_He pushed Carrie face first into a telephone pole. The wolf's head smacked into the pole dead on, and then she screamed as she fell down to the ground. Meanwhile, the cat reached Aug just as he finished standing up. He slashed the knife across the fox's chest a second time, which got Aug another deep cut. _

_Aug screamed, clutching to the new wound. He fell down to his knees, holding tight to himself to try to soothe the pain. Blood dripped from his cuts and soaked the snow red. _

"_That should do you," the cat said. "Now back to wolf girl." _

_Aug looked up from his position on the ground just in time to see the cat pick up Carrie by her coat's collar. Aug wanted to do something to help, but those two knife wounds were really starting to get to him. He was losing blood fast and feeling weak. A feeling of sleepiness began to overtake his body, as his eyes started to close. There was the sound of shouting, then a car screeching to a halt. After that, he passed out. _

**Back to the present...**

"What happened next?" Redrum asked, as he leaned in closer.

"Well...that's when I went unconscious, so I didn't see the rest of what happened," Nail answered. "My dad told me though that he was driving by right as I went unconscious. He jumped out of his car, kicked the shit out of that drunkard, and saved my sister. Lucky thing he used to be a street fighter, eh?"

"Yep."

"If he hadn't been around at the time, we'd probably be dead right now. Anyway, what would you do if you were in my position, finding out your long-lost sister is still alive?"

"But I don't have a sister. I was an only child."

"Well...hypothetically speaking...if you had a younger sister, and you got separated from her for several years, would you turn down the opportunity to see her again after so long?"

"Hell yeah," Redrum said, laughing. "I don't miss any of my family at all. They never did anything but hold me back. When I was a kid, they always made me return everything I stole, and apologize to all the smaller kids I beat up. I kind of wish I listened to them once I got thrown in prison when I moved up to murder, but I still would gladly give up seeing them again, even if I wasn't getting ten million demens out of it."

"Not me," Nail said. "I miss mine. Mom...Dad...little sister Carrie...littler sister Ayecaye... I didn't even know for sure if any of them were still living until Sonic brought up Carrie."

"You think any of the others are still alive?"

"I know Mom and Dad are dead. I saw them get killed right in front of me. But knowing that Carrie's still around... It's given me new hope for Ayecaye."

"Oh goodie..." Redrum said, laughing. "You wanting to go look for her too now?"

"Sure," Nail said, grinning.

"Just pick a better time to get reunited with her, okay?"

"Heh, will do."

The truck continued to roar down the road, heading back towards Nedlo.


	12. Chapter 11: In Search of Answers

**Chapter 11: In Search of Answers**

**September 2nd, 2316 – 11:50 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

A couple hours later, Tails, Knuckles, and the local regiment of soldiers figured they'd all collected enough testimony from witnesses to piece together what happened at Athara's Tavern. It frustrated Knuckles to learn that they'd just missed Nack by a minute or two, although they'd learned a lot of interesting clues.

Knuckles, Tails, and Captain Relis were now sitting around a table in his barracks, comparing notes. Several candles flickered on top of the rustic wooden table they were sitting at, casting eerie shadows of their bodies upon the bare brick walls of the room. A lantern hung from the ceiling above them, illuminating the sparse wooden rafters, as well as a heavy iron door with a tiny barred window in it.

The room certainly didn't feel relaxing at all, considering it was often used to interrogate criminals and such. However, since this room was deep within the building, it ensured that nobody could listen in on their discussion. If more people heard about the huge bounties on the heads of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, some of them would most definitely make an attempt to collect it. They really didn't need any more enemies right now.

"I got a lot of information from a rat who was a cook in the tavern," Knuckles said.

"How'd he have a lot of info?" Tails asked.

"He heard Nack through the back door of the tavern, because he was working in the kitchen at the time. Nack was talking to someone he called Canma."

"Canma?" Relis said. "Some people around in the neighborhood said they saw a purple vixen walking around with Nack."

"Really?" Tails asked. "We were chasing a purple vixen across the rooftops earlier too!"

"Canma must have been her name then," Relis said.

"I see," Knuckles answered. "I still can't get over how much money we're worth.

"Yeah," Tails said. "Twenty million demens for all of us... Who'd wanna pay that much money for us?"

"No idea," Knuckles said. "But, neither of them mentioned Carrie or Blackie Sten at all, so that probably means she's still safe."

"I'm glad for her then," Tails said. "What about Sonic though? Did they say that they had him?"

Knuckles shook his head. However, Relis got a bright smile on his face and turned to Tails.

"I remember something the witnesses were talking about," Relis said. "They heard Nack and Canma shouting 'He's got Sonic!' while they were chasing after a black truck that was roaring down the street."

"I guess that's the third bounty hunter we were talking about before," Knuckles said. "Anyone get a good look at his face through the windows?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Relis answered, shaking his head. "But at least we know what his vehicle looks like now."

"Great," Tails said glumly. He was hoping one of the witnesses would be able to give them a species and such of the kidnapper. It would bring them that much closer to ending this thing.

"Oh come on Tails!" Knuckles said cheerily, slapping him on the shoulder. "At least it's a start to finding Sonic, and it's better than nothing. Don't look so down."

"Yeah, besides, I'm not done talking yet," Relis said.

"What else do you have?" Tails asked.

"All guards around at the time of the attack on the hotel reported in as usual at the start of the shift. However, at the end of that shift, we discovered that one guard was missing."

"Missing?" Tails repeated.

"Yeah, but a little while ago we found him unconscious and locked up inside a storage room on the first floor of the hotel. He'd been stripped down to his underwear."

"So someone must have slipped into the hotel, using that uniform as a disguise," Knuckles said. "He must have been the one who kidnapped Sonic, because Canma or Nack weren't able to do it."

"And he must have been the one driving the truck that those two saw," Tails added. He looked at Relis. "Anyone see what he looked like?"

"Well, we probably did see his face," Relis said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, nobody bothered to check up on any of the guards until after we realized one was missing, and that was long after the hotel attack."

"Great! Just great!" Tails shouted.

"Tails, calm down, will you?" Knuckles muttered, putting a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

"All right Knuckles," Tails said, dropping the glum look. "It's just that I really miss Sonic. All my life, he's been my best friend, my big brother I never had, and he took over for Mom and Dad when Robotnik killed them. I don't want him to die."

"Me neither Tails," Knuckles said, patting Tails on the shoulder again. "Sonic is my friend too...even if we are rivals. I just can't imagine this world without him."

"Same here," a female voice said.

Tails, Knuckles, and Relis turned to face the entrance door of the room. Standing there was Carrie, dressed in the blue robes she'd worn the day the Grakoran Tournament had started. She had a warm smile on her face, which seemed to brighten the dark room just a little. However, her eyes were half closed, and she looked a little woozy. It seemed the sleeping gas hadn't worn off completely yet.

"Sorry about intruding," she said, walking over. "They said I could come in here if I wanted to."

"It's fine," Relis said, gesturing towards a seat at the table. "The hotel you live at is involved in this whole thing, so I'd say you can talk too. You sure you wanna be here though? You look like you're ready to collapse."

"Don't worry about me," she said, forcing a smile. However, she struggled to keep her eyes open. "I'm okay, although I don't think I've got any other info. I was asleep most of the time everything was happening, after all."

She yawned a bit. A small chuckle came from Relis, while Tails and Knuckles smiled a bit.

"So, what's your plan for how to nab those kidnappers anyway?" she asked, leaning towards Knuckles and Tails.

"We don't know yet," Knuckles shrugged. "It's a pretty good bet the bounty hunters have already left the city with Sonic, but we've got no idea what direction they're headed in."

"Yeah," Tails said. "If we just left now, it would be like a wild goose chase."

"You better hurry up then," Carrie said, sounding concerned. "They're probably getting further and further away the longer we're in here."

"I'm having my men search the town for more leads," Relis said, looking at Carrie. He formed his hands into a large fist on the table. "Hopefully someone can give us a clue on where those bounty hunters are headed to now. This isn't going to be easy though. In fact, it'll be harder due to this country's culture."

"Why's that?" Tails asked.

"Well Tails," Relis answered. "As you know, most Tneicnans don't want anything to do with humans, including their technology. It's our tradition to stay this way."

He cleared his throat.

"The thing is though, that makes it a lot harder to catch criminals. We don't have radios, telephones, or anything like that to call for help, so the only way to communicate is face to face more or less. That makes communications slow, which makes it easy for criminals to avoid the law. Furthermore, our fastest mode of transportation is riverboats, and they usually don't get over twenty miles per hour. If someone has a modern vehicle like a truck or a hover bike, they can easily outrun whatever we've got."

Relis glanced around the room, looking from Carrie, to Tails, to Knuckles. All three of them looked rather worried.

"To make a long story short, if someone doesn't want to be found in this country, chances are they won't be."

Carrie frowned a little, and raised a hand to her muzzle and held it there. She appeared to be trying to think of something she could say that would help. Finally, she turned to Knuckles.

"Knuckles, can't you--?"

Before she could finish, Knuckles held up a hand to silence her, and shook his head. Carrie stopped talking, as the echidna opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry Carrie, but my treasure hunting ability does have its limits," Knuckles said, guessing what Carrie was about to say. "Yes, it's possible for me to sense something these mercenaries have in their possession and go by that to find them, but they're too far out of range. I can't sense any of Nack's items from here, and it's the same with that truck that the other mercenary was driving."

Carrie's eyes widened a bit.

"Your power has a limit?" she asked. "I never knew that."

Knuckles nodded in confirmation, letting out a sigh as he did so.

"Yeah... I can sense anything within an area the size of several city blocks, but beyond that my power doesn't work at all."

"Looks like your work is cut out for you," Carrie said, looking between Tails, Knuckles, and Relis. She let off another yawn.

"It shouldn't be too bad," Knuckles said with a chuckle. "After beating Metal Sonic, tracking down a few mercenaries should be easy. Besides, who knows? Maybe Sonic will be able to escape on his own. He's had worse before."

"Good to know you still have confidence in your friend," Relis said with a smile. "However, we gotta do our job too. We better hit the streets again, while the trail stays hot and the memories stay fresh in the witnesses' heads."

The others nodded, and then they all got up and walked out of the room. Inside the barracks, the place was a mess. All of the bunks for the soldiers had been pushed aside to make room for tables and chairs. Citizens filed into the room through the front door, and they sat down at the tables to give tips they had on the bounty hunters. The room had a very cramped, claustrophobic feel, between all of the people inside it and the room only being lit by torches, candles, and lanterns.

This town sure wasn't taking Sonic's kidnapping lightly. After thinking about it for a moment though, Knuckles figured they had good reason to. After all, him, Tails, and Sonic were for all intents and purposes the only three people preventing Robotnik from taking over the planet. Losing Sonic would be a severe blow in the fight to defeat the mad doctor, and that would put everyone else on the planet in danger.

After much squirming to get through the room, the four of them reached the open street. More people were crowding up around the outside of the stone building, waiting to enter and share what they knew. He even saw a few citizens standing out in the street dressed for sleep. The torches illuminated their faces, but beyond the crowd Knuckles couldn't see much of the city. Meanwhile, off in the distance, Knuckles could see torches flickering across the streets, while the soldiers holding them patrolled around. The entire atmosphere of the place seemed shaky and uncertain, and Knuckles didn't like that.

Still though, they had a job to do, and that was to help in the search for Sonic. Knuckles wormed his way through the crowd, and at long last found himself with some actual breathing room as he stood in the middle of the road.

"Ooh...that's good," Knuckles said, stretching out. "Now I can actually move."

"You okay Knuckles?" Carrie said, putting a hand on his shoulder. She sounded exhausted.

"I'm fine," he said, turning around to look at her. Carrie's eyes fluttered a bit as she tried to keep them open.

Meanwhile, as they stepped away from the light of the barracks, Relis pulled out a torch and touched it to the light of another soldier who was walking by. The oil quickly ignited, illuminating the area around them.

"Maybe you should go home," Captain Relis, looking at Carrie. "It doesn't look like you're over that gas attack yet. I think the best thing for you right now is sleep."

Carrie let out another long yawn, and she covered her mouth with one hand.

"Okay..." she said. "I guess you're right. I'll go onto bed."

"Do you think you can make it back?" Tails asked, folding his arms to keep warm in the chilly night air. "I wouldn't be surprised if you fell asleep right here. I can help you back to the hotel."

"I guess I do need some help," she said with a feeble laugh.

The wolf extended her hand downwards, so the much shorter fox could grab it. Tails took it, and looked back at Knuckles and Captain Relis.

"See you two later."

"Bye," Knuckles said with a wave.

The wolf and fox turned around, headed back towards the hotel. Within a few moments, they were already almost impossible to see in the darkness. Since Tneicna didn't have any streetlights, the town got pitch black during the night. of buildings loomed over him like those of giants, and it was difficult to see any farther than a few feet out of the range of the torch Relis was holding.

"Knuckles," he started. "Want to split up? We can search the town faster that way. I can go with you though, if the dark's bothering you."

Knuckles felt a twinge of anger at Relis' statement. Was he actually considering that he'd be afraid of a little thing like not being able to see properly? The echidna felt the urge to show that he wasn't a softie.

"No way!" Knuckles said, folding his arms. "I haven't been scared of the dark since I was two! I'll be fine."

"Okay, okay...sorry for doubting you," Relis chuckled a bit. "Just be sure you don't get lost, all right? If you do though, I'm sure one of my men can help you find your way."

"Hah…I'm one of the world's greatest treasure hunters, and you think I can get lost? That's funny."

"Good then." Relis nodded. "Well, the best of luck to you tonight."

"You too."

Captain Relis took off down the street. Just like Carrie and Tails, he seemed to melt into the darkness within a few moments, but it took longer with that torch illuminating his position. However, as he walked around a corner, the light from his fire quickly disappeared. The echidna was now totally alone in the dark.

_Yeesh...now I kind of wish I hadn't tried to act tough before. I can't see a damn thing out here. Maybe I better go see if I can get hold of a torch somewhere..._

After a moment of contemplation, he headed back towards the barracks. Surely they had a spare light there, with how much the place was lit up.


	13. Chapter 12: Art of Deception

**Chapter 12: Art of Deception **

**September 3rd, 2316 – 12:00 AM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

Nail briskly walked down the street, as the armor plates on his soldier uniform rattled against each other. The sound was so loud it was like listening to a bunch of aluminum cans rattle as they hit the floor. It seemed even louder, considering almost everyone else in the city had gone to bed by now. Nail paid no attention to that though. He was about to see his sister again, who he hadn't seen in more than a decade.

While he was also supposed to be capturing Tails and Knuckles, he personally didn't care that much about doing the job. Nail had mostly used that as an excuse so he could go back into Nedlo again. Thus, he hadn't come all that well prepared for a capture. His disguise, his tranquilizer gun, and his radio completely made up his equipment.

Unfortunately, with how dark this place got once the sun went down, finding the Brenbar Inn again would be tricky. Nail wished he could have brought along a flashlight, but then the locals would see through his disguise quickly and he'd be in a lot of trouble. That wasn't much of a big deal to him though, considering his genes.

_God bless you for being a wolf, Dad. _

Nail could see farther in the dark than an average Freedomian, considering the wolf eyes he had, although he wouldn't exactly want to do a crossword puzzle in the dark using only them. Nail only saw just enough to get a vague idea of what was nearby, and what obstacles were in his way, but that was about it. Words on signs blurred together in the dark, and he couldn't distinguish colors that well. It was frustrating...

"Hey!"

Reflexively, Nail whirled around to face the source of the voice as he pulled out his tranquilizer gun. A mole was standing in the second floor window of a nearby house, with a candle in his hand. By the light of the candle, Nail could see he was dressed for sleep, and he appeared to have just rolled out of bed.

"Stop running!" he shouted. "You're making a big racket with that armor of yours!"

Nail wondered for a second why the mole hadn't reacted to him pulling out a gun, and then he forgot that he was standing in the dark street. The mole couldn't see the weapon from where he was. Nail let out a sigh as he hid the tranq gun again under his clothes. Ignoring the mole's command, he took off sprinting down the street once more.

"I told ya to stop running!" the mole howled. "Are you deaf, you idiot?"

The mole continued to shout on and on. If he kept that up, pretty soon he'd be making more noise than Nail was. The fox gave a brief smirk at the mole's hypocrisy, but quickly pushed it aside. There were more pressing matters at hand.

Nail paused in the middle of the next street intersection, trying to remember which way he had to go to get back to the hotel from here.

_Hmm...I'm not sure where I am. This area doesn't look familiar, but that might only be because it's dark. Was I supposed to turn left at this street? Or was the next one? Dammit! If only it were during the day, this job would be so much easier. _

Nail eventually decided to keep heading down the road he was already on. As he ran, he remembered that he _was_ supposed to turn at the next intersection, and did so when he got there. After another run down this road, he saw the hotel in the distance. It was quite easy to spot, considering most of the lights were switched on. It was like a glittering oasis in the dark of the city.

Unfortunately, those lights were for the massive amount of guards standing around outside. There had to be at least twenty of them at the front of the building, and several more keeping a lookout on the roof. Not to mention, Nail was willing to bet they'd be on the lookout for a soldier in disguise this time. They really weren't taking any chances on someone breaking inside the hotel again, which meant that going inside to see Carrie was a definite no no.

Letting out a sigh, Nail turned around and started to head back the way he'd come. While Nail was an infiltration expert, it seemed too big of a gamble to try to get in there right now. He'd have to try to sneak in later, after things had cooled down. Each step away from the hotel was a terrible admittance of defeat to the fox, and it took him a lot of effort to ignore common sense and try to get into the hotel despite the security.

As he turned around at a corner pottery store, he saw a sight that made his heart skip a beat. Knuckles was walking down the street towards him, with a lit torch in his hand. It was easy to recognize his face because of the flame's light. This was too good to be true! It looked like he'd be able to at least snag Knuckles tonight for a bounty of five million demens.

After confirming that Knuckles hadn't spotted him yet, Nail ducked back behind the corner he'd just walked around. He pulled the tranquilizer gun out from under his armor, and held it up in a ready to fire position as he leaned against the pottery store's wall. Slowly but surely, the echidna's footsteps increased in volume. Meanwhile, Nail tensed himself, and prepared to jump out and fire. He was confident this would work. After all, it had worked before on Sonic...

"_We stayed with one of the maids. She's a friend of ours. Her name is Carrie Strafer." _

Sonic had said that before... Him, Tails, and Knuckles were all staying with her. Maybe Knuckles could give him some more information? This would be risky though. What if the echidna got suspicious about him asking about her?

Then Nail grinned. He'd read up profiles on Sonic and his two friends, and just remembered one important detail. Out of the three of them, Knuckles was the most gullible and easiest to trick. He'd probably take any excuse Nail gave him for asking about her.

The fox hid the tranquilizer gun underneath his armor again. Taking a deep breath, he stepped around the corner to confront the echidna. However, he realized he'd jumped out a bit too suddenly, as Knuckles gasped and went into a fighting stance. Nail jumped back a bit, believing the echidna had already seen through his disguise. The fox's heart started racing. But then, Knuckles got a good look at his uniform, and relaxed his posture.

"Sorry about that," Knuckles apologized. "I thought you were one of those bounty hunters."

A twinge of fear pulsed across Nail's body, but he did manage to keep his facial expression neutral.

"Yeah..." the fox said. "Hard to tell who's who in the dark, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I know. So...got something to tell me?"

Nail blinked. "Eh?"

"Well... I don't think you'd talk to me unless you had some new information."

Blinking again, the fox realized he'd forgotten he was in disguise. Slipping back into his role again, Nail started to speak.

"Sorry. I've been having to do overtime with this whole Nack business. I was wondering...that Carrie girl you're staying with. How's she handling this whole situation, since her home got attacked?"

"She seems to be dealing with it okay, but last I saw her she was still a little woozy from the sleeping gas Nack used when he first tried to capture us."

Nail recalled Nack had tried to capture Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles at the stadium by using sleeping gas, but the only one who got caught in it was Carrie. Redrum had been watching the event from afar with binoculars.

"Oh right, that thing," he said, trying not to sound too interested in the conversation.

"Why do you wanna know, anyway?" Knuckles asked, folding his arms.

"Well...it's my job as a soldier to protect the citizens of this fine town," Nail said, stomping his foot a bit for emphasis. He shifted his tone of voice to sound accusing. "If I weren't thinking about her too, I wouldn't be doing my job. You don't want me to get fired, do ya?"

"Fair enough." Knuckles said, grinning a little. "Well, anything else?"

Nail paused a little. Should he pry further? What if Knuckles noticed he was showing a bit of an unhealthy interest in her? Suddenly, an idea struck him.

"I've always wondered why you've been hanging out with Carrie," Nail asked, sounding skeptical, as if he couldn't believe the three saviors of Planet Freedom would be friends with a mere commoner. "What did she ever do for you?"

"Well she did give us a place to stay in that hotel after all," Knuckles said, rolling his eyes. "Getting a room here at this time of year is total hell, and I'd be an idiot to not call anyone who did that for me a friend."

"Yeah? Well how'd you meet her? I mean, you, Sonic, and Tails are like the heroes of Planet Freedom, so I think you'd be around someone more important, like the President maybe."

"It's a bit of a long story, but to make it short about two years ago we saved her from a pair of gunmen who wanted to kill her for some reason. We still don't know why. All we got is that their leader's name is Blackie Sten, and that she's been chased by him for years."

_Gunmen...? They couldn't be...no. Why would they still be after us, eleven years later? Are they really the same gunmen that attacked our house in Gerrant, killed Mom and Dad, and forced me to abandon my sisters? Then again, it doesn't make much sense for them to still be after us. I mean, what's so special about Carrie, Ayecaye, and me? It should be just coincidence. But I do have a funny feeling..._

"Hey...you awake?" Knuckles said, waving a hand in front of Nail's face.

The fox realized he'd totally zoned out while he was digesting what Knuckles was telling him.

"Oh!" Nail said, smiling nervously. "Sorry about that. Like I said, I'm feeling tired right now..."

"I don't blame you."

"So that's how you became friends? You saved her life from those two gunmen?"

"Yep..." Knuckles said with a smile. "We've been friends ever since. Sometimes me, Sonic and Tails, or all three of us drop by to visit her."

A broad smile crossed Nail's face.

"Well thank y—" Nail suddenly paused in mid sentence, realizing he was starting to let his true identity show. He'd nearly said 'Thank you for protecting my sister.' Nail regained his composure quickly, and spoke again. "Thank you for telling me that."

Knuckles arced an eyebrow and eyed Nail closely. "Er...you're welcome. You're an odd one, aren't you? I mean, I don't see why you'd need to say thanks for me doing something like that."

Nail chuckled to cover his nervousness, as he realized that his disguise was cracking. Perhaps Knuckles wasn't as stupid as he thought he'd be. Nail felt the fur stand up on his back when he saw the echidna was starting to look him up and down with a suspicious glare. He could also feel his half tail fluffing out, and moved to stand so that it wasn't in view of Knuckles.

Trying to keep up appearances, he said, "What's it to ya? Maybe I'm just a guy who really cares about other people."

"Oh really?" Knuckles said, glaring at him as he walked around Nail. The fox felt like he was being X-rayed by the echidna's eyes. "Can you tell me your commander's name then? After all, if you cared about him I'd sure you'd take the time to remember it."

_Oh shit. This is not going to end well..._

Speaking slowly, Nail said, "His name is Captain...Norshalf..."

A fist collided with the helmet on Nail's head. The blow was so severe that it actually dented the metal of the helmet and hit him on the skull. Nail grunted as he collapsed to the ground. Knuckles planted a foot on the fox's back so that he couldn't crawl away. That punch had done quite a number on the Nail's head. His vision blurred, and he also felt a headache coming on.

"Wrong answer, you faker," Knuckles breathed out. "Now where's Sonic? It's no use trying to play dumb, because we know there was someone in disguise as a guard lurking around the hotel at the time Sonic disappeared. It's gotta be you."

"I've got no idea what you're talking about," Nail breathed out, as he pressed his hands against the ground.

The fox started trying to push himself, using the ground as leverage, but Knuckles pressed down harder with his foot, sending him into the cobbled street again. Nail groaned in pain as his forehead hit the solid stone street.

"You're not going anywhere until I get some answers!" Knuckles growled. "Now tell me... Where is Sonic? Not to mention, why did you come back here? You were in a real hurry to get out of the city in that truck of yours!"

_Dammit...looks like Redrum was right. They knew about me being in disguise, and about our little chase with Nack and that purple vixen. It's okay though... If I can just reach under my armor..._

Nail tried to reach under his armor for his gun, but Knuckles stomped down on his arm to prevent it from moving.

"You seem to be hard of hearing," Knuckles breathed, his mouth inches away from Nail's ears. "Maybe this will help a bit."

He yanked Nail's helmet off and tossed it aside. It clattered noisily across the cobblestones, finally coming to a rest against a curb. Nail's gray fur and fox ears were now fully exposed, and swayed slightly in the breeze blowing down the street. A moment later, a fist slammed into the back of Nail's head, sending his chin bouncing off of the ground before it came to rest once more. The fox cried out in pain.

"Tell me what I want to know!" Knuckles shouted, "Or I'll keep doing that over and over until you pass out! Then the city guards will beat it out of you instead! I won't let you take Sonic away from us!"

"Knuckles!" someone screamed. This voice sounded quite young, like one of a boy.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nail saw Knuckles turn back to look at who had shouted.

"What is it Tails?" Knuckles grumbled. "And where's Carrie?"

"I took her back to the room so she could sleep," Tails answered. "But why are you beating up that guard? What did he do to you?"

"This is the bastard who kidnapped Sonic!" Knuckles howled. "I'm trying to beat it out of him where he took him! Wouldn't you like to know that, since he's practically your brother?"

Nail heard Tails gasp a bit.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes, really. Now go and get some other guards, so we can haul this guy off to prison. I'll keep pounding him for info."

Nail closed his eyes, and tensed himself for the next blow. He knew he was screwed. Knuckles had him down on the ground, and Tails was here too. Even if he somehow managed to worm himself out from under Knuckles' feet, he'd still have to deal with Tails. And then if he got past that, there would be legions of guards to deal with as he left the city.

It was all over...

_Wait...I've got an idea. It probably won't work, but oh well... It's worth a try. _

"I…I'm…" Nail stuttered, trying to talk through the pain.

"What is it?" Knuckles grumbled. "Spit it out!"

"I'm Carrie's brother," Nail finally finished. "That's why I was so interested in her."

There was a moment of silence. Knuckles spoke first.

"…Huh?" the echidna mumbled.

"I'm Carrie's brother, Augustine Strafer," Nail repeated. He noticed that Knuckles was relaxing the pressure of the foot on his back.

"You're lying!" Knuckles howled, increasing the pressure again. Nail closed his eyes, to protect himself from the spit that was flying from Knuckles' mouth. "You're just saying that so I'll let you go! It's not happening, pal."

"Please, I'm telling you the truth," Nail breathed out. "It sounds crazy, but if you just give me a chance to prove—"

"Enough with your lies!" Knuckles shouted. "Now quit stalling and tell us where you have Sonic! Otherwise you get another one of my fists in the back of your head!"

_Looks like it was a dumb idea after all…_

Nail sighed a bit.

"Here comes the next one!" the echidna shouted.

The fox closed his eyes hard, as he waited for the next dose of pain. And he waited some more, and more. The punch never came. Risking a glance, he slightly turned his head so he could look up to one side. Tails was standing above Nail with Knuckles. The younger fox had his arms wrapped around Knuckles' punching arm, to keep him from delivering the next blow.

"Tails! What are you doing?" Knuckles said. "You wanna find out where Sonic is, don't you?"

"Yes, I do Knuckles," Tails answered. "But I also want to find out if what this guy says is the truth. We could take him to Carrie. If he were lying, she'd know it. Remember that she can tell when someone's about to commit a crime. She'd be able to tell if he was planning something. Come on...it won't take long."

Knuckles stared down at Nail's face with a hardened expression for a few moments. Suddenly, he let out a 'hmph' and took his foot off of the older fox's back.

"Fine, suit yourself!" Knuckles said. "Don't blame me if this all turns out to be a trick though."

Nail simultaneously felt relieved and terrified. On one hand, they were taking him to see Carrie, and he was very much looking forward to that. On the other hand, Nail remembered that when they were kids, Carrie had some kind of weird ability that let her tell when somebody was plotting something behind another's back. She'd tattle-tailed on Nail a lot before he could pull some kind of prank, and it was as annoying as hell.

It looks like she still had that power, going by what these guys were saying. The only way he'd be able to keep her from exposing him would be to clear his head completely of his job and the mission, and that wasn't gonna be easy. After all, how on earth could _anyone _keep from thinking about the prospect of making ten million demens?


	14. Chapter 13: Reunion

**Chapter 13: Reunion **

**September 3rd, 2316 – 12:10 AM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

Ever since Tails had left Carrie in her bed, she'd settled into an uncomfortable sleep. The wolf had done her best to try to relax, but too much had been going on lately. Her mind buzzed with everything that had happened this evening.

_The gas attack at the stadium...the gas attack here...Sonic getting kidnapped... What else could happen now? It's all happening so fast it doesn't feel real..._

Suddenly, someone opened the door to her room, allowing a soft light from the torches in the hall to seep in. Carrie closed her eyes a little harder to block the light out. That didn't work out too well, as she sensed someone bringing more light with them into the room. Grudgingly, she opened her eyes.

As her vision came into focus, Carrie saw Captain Relis standing at the door, and at the foot of her bed were three other people. On the left was Tails, his face glowing in the light of the candle he held in his hand. Beside him stood Knuckles, whose face could also be made out in the candlelight. The wolf also noticed that Knuckles held a rope in his hand, which led into a knot that tied up the hands of a third person with them that Carrie didn't recognize...and yet he looked familiar somehow. He was a gray fox. The candlelight reflected off of his eyes, making them shine like small torches in the darkness.

Since nobody spoke, Carrie decided to break the silence. Sitting up in her bed, she asked, "What is it you two? And who's this with you?"

"Carrie...there's someone here who'd like to talk with you," Tails said, gesturing towards the older fox.

She turned her attention to him, as he put on a small smile.

"Carrie," the fox said softly. "There isn't an easy way to put this, so I'll just say it straight up. It's me, your brother...Augustine...or Nail, as I go by today."

For a moment, Carrie was silent. However, a moment later her mind actually started to process the shocking information, and her mouth opened slightly in surprise. She leaned forward slightly, trying to get a better look at this fox.

"What?" she gasped. "How is that possible?"

Even as she said it though, she realized that it was very possible this vulpine was her brother. Augustine was a fox, had gray fur, and yellow wolf eyes. The person standing before him had all of these traits. Furthermore, she couldn't sense he was hiding anything in his mind, so he must not be lying. However, she was a tad skeptical.

"So is it really you, Aug?" Carrie said, sliding out of bed and moving over to him. "How do I know it's you?"

"Well...what would do you want me to do to prove it to you, Carrie?" Nail said. "Want me to tell you what your favorite song used to be? Or maybe the names of your friends at grade school? Or maybe something I did for you?"

The last one brought a memory to Carrie's mind...

_Carrie moved to stand behind her brother, as Aug confronted the drunk cat. _

"_What do you want?" Aug asked. _

"_Give me all your money!" he shouted, stepping closer to point the knife at Aug's head._

_Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out four one-demen bills and handed them to the cat. The feline waited a moment to see if Aug would give him any more money, and then he growled as he brought the knife closer to the fox's head. _

"_That's all you've got?" he screamed. _

"_Well...yeah," Aug said, starting to feel a bit afraid. "We're just kids. We don't have anything else."_

_That only seemed to enrage the drunken man even further. With a shout, he slashed his knife across Aug's chest. Aug cried out in pain as the knife cut all the way through his clothes, his fur, and down to the skin underneath. He looked down, and blood was already beginning to seep out and soak his clothes. Before he had time to do anything else, the drunken cat threw him aside and advanced on Carrie. _

"_Now it's your turn girl!" he shouted. "This is what you get for wasting my time!" _

_Carrie screamed, and ran past Aug down the street. However, since the cat had much longer legs as an adult, he easily caught up with her. The feline's hand wrapped around the hood of her coat, and she was yanked backwards. He pulled out his knife and prepared to slice her just as he'd done to Aug. _

"_Stop!" Aug shouted, climbing to his feet as he held an arm to cover his wound. _

"_You want some more, pup?" the cat said, turning to face him._

Carrie looked the fox up and down again. Her eyes rested on his chest.

"Aug...if that is you, can you take off your chest armor?" she asked, looking back up to his face.

"Why would you want him to do that?" Knuckles asked.

"Just trust me, Knuckles," Carrie answered, looking at him.

The fox looked confused for a moment, but then he gave a little smile, apparently catching onto what she was hinting at. Did that mean that he really was her brother? Anyone else probably wouldn't have reacted that way...

As she thought about it, Tails undid the bonds on the fox's hands. After he was done, the vulpine lifted the upper section of his armor up over his head, exposing a dark blue T-shirt underneath the metal plates. That definitely wasn't standard issue among Tneicnan soldiers, since it was a modern garment, although she hardly noticed. He then took off the shirt, exposing two scars forming a cross mark on his upper chest. She remembered Aug having a scar in the same area after the knife attack...

"I think you know where I got this, right Carrie?" the fox asked. "It was that drunk with the knife, when we were waiting for the school bus when we were little kids."

Carrie froze, her mouth hanging open in shock.

_It has to be him! All of this can't just be coincidence! He looks like Aug, has the same memories as Aug, he seems to be what Aug's age would be today, he's got Aug's scars, and to top it all off I sense he's not lying! This has to be him! _

A broad grin crossed the wolf's face, as she ran over and wrapped her arms around Aug in a hug. Despite her brother being two years older, she still surpassed him in height by a few inches due to her species. Aug seemed to freeze up for a moment, surprised by the sudden move, although within a few seconds he too started to hug back. Tears of joy began to stream down Carrie's face, and she realized she could feel tears dripping from Aug's face too.

"Oh Aug! It really is you!" she yelled, between the hugs. "It's been years!"

"I know!" Nail said back. "I can't believe this is happening! I'll never leave you alone again!"

The two temporarily separated, both with tears streaming down their faces and their mouths stretching into wide smiles. Neither of them spoke for a few moments, as they were too happy to say anything.

Suddenly, Knuckles broke the silence a little cough, causing everyone in the room to look at him.

"Sorry to spoil the reunion Carrie," Knuckles said, glaring at Nail. "But I'm afraid there's something else you should know about your brother Nail here. He was the one who kidnapped Sonic."

It was like someone had torn out Carrie's heart and filled in the hole with cement. She stared hard at Knuckles, before looking Nail up and down. Her brother looked as though he'd just accidentally killed her best friend. Come to think of it, that wasn't too far away from what he had done. In shame, Nail closed his eyes and faced away from Carrie.

"Is it true, Nail?" Carrie asked.

"Yes...it's true Carrie. I'm the one who..." Nail choked for a moment. "...kidnapped Sonic."

Carrie's tears of joy turned to tears of anger and sadness. Of all the people in the world, why did it have to be her brother who had done such a crime? It made her feel like crawling into a hole and never showing her face to anyone again. She'd been wishing for so long to see anyone from her family again. This was supposed to be a happy reunion, not one where she felt like hiding in a dark corner and wishing to never be seen again!

Meanwhile, a smirk crossed Knuckles' face.

"Heh heh, I knew he was the one who did it," the echidna said with a dark smile. "Finally, we can get Sonic back again."

Carrie growled, as she turned to face Knuckles. She gave him a hard slap across the face, and he was so caught off guard by the sudden strike that he nearly fell down. Only putting his arm out kept him standing. Knuckles reared back up again, the red mark of a hand across his face. Tails just stood nearby, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Knuckles!" Carrie screamed. "This is no time for you to show off how happy you are! Don't you know how cold it makes you look?"

Knuckles' eyes bulged out in surprise, and he didn't seem to know what to say. Both Nail and Tails had their mouths hanging open too, and for good reason. As far as Carrie knew, this was the first time she'd ever had such an outburst in front of anyone, and that included Aug in all the years he'd known him.

"I...I'm sorry," Knuckles said. "But...Sonic. Even if he is my rival, I don't want anything to happen to him, because he's also my friend. I just got carried away. I mean, I just caught the one person who'd know where he is..."

Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie faced Nail. As they all stared at him, he turned his head down to the floor to avoid looking them in the face.

"I'm so sorry everyone..." Nail said. "You see, I'm a mercenary for hire, and Sonic was worth ten million demens. That's why I captured him. The money was just too good to—"

"Aug!" Carrie cried, tears streaming down her face. "How could you do this? You used to be such a good brother! You never did anything wrong at all, and you only fought when it was to protect someone! Now you've made me feel ashamed to be your sister!"

"Carrie..." Nail started again. "I wouldn't mind stopping this work, but the money—"

"Is that all you care about Nail?" Carrie interrupted. "Money?"

Nail narrowed his eyes, his tone shifting to anger.

"It was ten million demens for Sonic! Nobody in their right mind would ignore an offer like that!"

"But it's wrong! How can you do this? Has your conscience left you completely? I don't remember you being like this at all! What happened to Aug? He protected me from that drunk with the knife, and I want him back! Not Nail!"

Carrie fell to the floor, tears streaming from her face like a waterfall. Through her teary eyes, she saw Nail moving closer and kneeling next to her. He put one arm across her back.

"Oh Carrie," Nail started. "I'm so sorry..."

The wolf pushed Nail away, as he tried to get close to her.

"Don't touch me!" she cried, looking at him furiously. "If you really do feel sorry, then you'll quit your work as a mercenary right now and give us back Sonic! It's the right thing to do, and what I know Aug would do!"

She stood up to her full height and towered over Nail. Her face had a hard expression of fury, while he just looked on in surprise.

"If you really want me to accept you as my brother again, you'll do it. Show me that you care about more than just money!"

Again, there was a moment of silence between everyone. Nail had turned to look away from his sister, apparently to think about it. However, Carrie's gaze never left her brother. After five minutes, Nail finally stood up and looked her sister square in the eye.

"All right..." Nail said. "I'll go get Sonic back. I swear it."

"Well go out there and do it then already," Carrie said firmly, pointing at the door.

"There's a problem though," Nail said.

"What is it? Don't tell me you're already thinking of not doing this!"

"Calm down Carrie!" Nail said, waving his arm for emphasis. "It's nothing like that! What I was going to say was that while me and my friend Redrum were out in the woods, Nack and a friend of his attacked us. They stole away Sonic too, and now he's their captive. They're probably on their way to the drop site right now."

Tails and Knuckles both looked like they were ready to tear Nail limb from limb. Carrie hardly noticed though. She felt a ripple cross through her brother's thoughts. He was definitely plotting something bad in his mind right now. A small frown formed on her face.

"You idiot!" Knuckles screamed. "I hate you! I'll never forgive you if anything happens to Sonic while he's with Canma and Nack."

Now it was Nail's turn to look like he wanted to crawl into a dark hole and never be seen again. He stared down at his feet, as he shifted them around.

"I-I'm sorry, but—"

"But what?" Knuckles howled. "Sorry isn't gonna fix anything, and neither are excuses!"

Nail reared up his head and glared hard at Knuckles. "I wasn't finished speaking yet, you stupid echidna!"

"I'll show you stupid!" Knuckles said, lunging towards Nail with a fist.

However, Tails grabbed ahold of his arm before the fist could hit him.

"Everyone, just calm down!" Tails shouted, speaking for only the second time since they'd come into the room. "This is crazy!"

Nail sighed. "Sorry."

Knuckles just glared at Tails, and grunted a bit. The echidna moved over to stare out the window. Tails looked at him for a moment, before looking back to Nail.

"Now, what were you going to say, Nail?" Tails asked.

"I was gonna say," Nail started. "If we're going to catch them, we gotta get a move on. That hover bike of Nack's is damn fast. He could probably get to the drop off point within several hours if he hurries. He's already got a head start on us, and I bet you you'll never see Sonic again if he reaches the client."

"Don't worry about it," Tails said with a smile. "The Tornado 2 isn't much of a slowpoke either. I bet you we could catch up."

"Good then," Nail nodded. "I'll come with you."

"No you're not," Knuckles said, striding over to Nail. The two of them stood foot to foot and face to face. "You tried to steal away Sonic for money. I can't trust you. I know you're just wanting to get away."

"Please let me go with you," Nail said, speaking a little urgently. "Honestly, I do want to help. It's the least I can do for you, for looking after my sister for the last two years. If I knew about this, I'd have dropped this mission completely."

In a pleading tone, he continued to speak.

"You've got no idea what meeting my sister again means to me. It's been driving me nuts for so long, wondering if I have any family left, but now my wondering days are over, and it feels so great. I'm begging you... Give me a chance to repay you for bringing me to my sister. Look, even she said she wants me to go out and help before."

Carrie growled softly under her breath as she heard that. She could still sense her brother wasn't being totally honest with these two.

"No," Knuckles said flatly. "It's too dangerous to bring him along. This could all just be a trick for him to try to escape, or worse, try to capture us so he can get money that way instead. Carrie, what do you think? Do you think we can trust him?"

All eyes in the room were now on Carrie. Nail stared at her fearfully, knowing that she held his fate in her hands. Whatever she said, that's what they'd trust, since she was the telepath of the group. She let out a deep sigh, because it would be difficult for her to bring out what she was about to say.

At long last, she said, with tears in her eyes, "No Knuckles... We...can't trust him. He only wants to get away. I can sense it in him."

Carrie closed her eyes and cried some more, feeling betrayed by her brother. Was he really this shallow? Had everything she'd said done nothing to affect his mindset? What's worse, she felt terrible about sentencing him to prison like this. Through her tear-clouded eyes, she saw her brother was in a state of shock. Knuckles had a sly grin on his face, as he pushed Nail towards the guards waiting at the entrance of the room.

"Take him away," the echidna said, with an immense tone of satisfaction.

Sniffling some more, Carrie crawled back into bed and started to cry herself back to sleep.


	15. Chapter 14: Outta Town

**Chapter 14: Outta Town **

**September 3rd, 2316 – 12:20 AM – Nedlo, Tneicna **

Tails had to admit that while they'd finally captured the person who kidnapped Sonic, he somehow didn't feel satisfied by it. The conversation they'd had with Carrie just now left a feeling of doubt in his mind. Even though Carrie's telepathy abilities hadn't failed them yet, this time he felt himself questioning whether or not she'd made the right judgment on him.

Knuckles seemed to be feeling the polar opposite of Tails. He was as giddy as could be with the outcome of their talk, and he just wouldn't stop smiling. There didn't seem to be a doubt in the echidna's mind that they'd done the right thing in there.

In front of them, the soldiers escorted Nail down the stairs, while Tails and Knuckles trailed behind. As they reached the lobby though, the phone in the phone room rang. A soldier went into the room to answer it. Tails didn't pay it much mind, but a few seconds later the soldier came back out.

"Tails! Knuckles!" he called out. "It's for you!"

Tails stopped walking to look at the soldier, and then he glanced back at Knuckles. The echidna gave a little shrug. Tails headed into the little dark room with Knuckles behind him, and placed the phone up against his ear.

"Um...hello?" he said, his voice sounding rather flat.

"Why hello there little Tails!" Nack's voice said cheerfully on the other end. "How are you this fine evening? Or would it be morning since it's past midnight? Oh well, it doesn't really matter."

"What do you want Nack?" Tails shouted back. "I know you didn't just call us to say hello!"

"Well jeez! All I wanted to do was have a little fun with you!" Nack said, in a mock angry voice. "Oh well, I suppose I can't expect something like that out of you, since you're just a stupid little boy. I'll get straight to the point since you're obviously in no mood for small talk! I have Sonic with me right now. Say hello to your friends for them if you don't mind, hedgehog!"

There was the sound of the phone being passed to somebody else.

"Tails!" Sonic gasped out.

"Sonic! Are you okay?" Tails said, holding the phone tighter to his ear.

"I'm fine. They haven't done any---"

Suddenly the phone was taken away from Sonic, and there was the sound of someone punching him in the face. Tails heard his friend grunting on the other end.

"That's enough talking, I think," a female voice said, taking over for Nack. This was Canma, Tails figured. "It's just enough let you know we do have Sonic, and that we do mean business. Now listen up carefully fox boy! I'm only going to say this once! You and Knuckles will come to the Whisper Valley in the Drail Mountains in Cictra and surrender yourselves to us. Come alone and be there by noon today.

"If you aren't on time, we cut off one of your friend's fingers for every hour you are late. If you still aren't there, we'll move up to cutting his arm off, piece by piece. Then after that we'll go to his legs. We may have to deliver Sonic alive to get our bounty, but he doesn't have to be delivered unharmed. You have been warned."

There was a click, and then the bleat of the dial tone in Tails' ear. His eyes bulged out, and in silent shock he put the phone down on the receiver. Tails walked back into the lobby, and Knuckles followed him out.

"Well? What did Nack say?" Knuckles asked, putting one hand on Tails' shoulder.

"He and Canma said that if we don't show up in the Whisper Valley in the Drail Mountains by noon today, and if we don't come alone, they're gonna start cutting up Sonic," Tails whimpered. "They said it doesn't matter if they torture him, because he doesn't have to be delivered unharmed as long as he's still alive."

"Damn! What cowards!" Knuckles shouted, clenching his fists. "They're using him as bait to draw us out, so they can capture us too!"

"What can we do though?" Tails said. "It sounds like they're not willing to negotiate what they've laid out."

"We have no real choice then Tails," Knuckles said. "We'll just have to go up there and kind of pull something out of our asses."

Tails nodded. With fury in his eyes, he watched as the soldiers took Nail out through the front door, but he hardly noticed. He was too busy seething with rage at Nack and Canma, who were resorting to such low tactics to get their money.

Knuckles suddenly put a hand on Tails' shoulder. "Tails, we'll just have to think it through on the way up there. It'll take most of the time they gave us just to fly up to the mountains."

Knuckles was right. Nedlo was on the far south end of Tneicna, and the Drail mountains were up on the far north in Cictra. It would take quite a while to fly up there, and they had to get a move-on.

"You're right Knuckles..." Tails said. "Let's get moving."

The two of them started walking to the door. Captain Relis stopped them though.

"Are you sure you have to go without any help?" he asked. "I'd gladly come with you if I could be of some assistance."

"No, I'm sorry but you can't come," Tails said. "They said we had to be by ourselves."

"I understand," Relis answered. "What should I tell Carrie though when she wakes up? You'll be long gone by the time the sun rises."

"Just tell her we'll be fine," Knuckles said. "I don't want her to get all worried. She's had enough to deal with lately with her brother showing up here."

"All right then," Relis said. "The best of luck to both of you."

He gave a little salute. All of the soldiers nearby saluted as well. With a small smile, Tails returned the salute and Knuckles did the same.

"Thank you," Tails said, before looking back at Knuckles. "Let's get to the Tornado 2, Knuckles. We gotta save Sonic!"

"Right behind you!"

The two zoomed out of the hotel lobby in a flash, leaving the lobby so fast they caused the giant potted ferns flanking the front door to wave in the wind.

**Elsewhere in Nedlo…**

"Heh heh," a turtle guard chuckled, as he opened up a rusty iron door. "Welcome to your new home, my friend."

Nail glared at the grinning guard for a moment. He had been stripped of his soldier uniform in addition to his equipment. All that he had now was the clothing that had been on underneath the suit, which was his blue t-shirt and his green cargoes. Another guard standing behind him shoved him into the small cell. He hit the stone tiled floor hard, and grunted from the sudden impact. Behind him the guards laughed some more, before slamming the door closed. Nail spit out a little blood from his mouth, as he turning around to look at the door. The turtle guard gazed back at him through an eye slot.

"You best get comfy," he said. "By the time you get out of here, you're going to be at least sixty years older, minimum. Have fun in there! Heh heh heh!"

The eye slot slid closed, and then he heard the guards walking away. It was at this moment that Nail decided to examine his living quarters. It was a little hard to see though, because a small lantern hanging from the ceiling provided the only light. The walls were all made of rough stone blocks. A narrow wooden plank hung from the wall by two chains, and this was apparently supposed to be his bed.

Also, a small barred window was set into one wall. Standing on his tippy toes, Nail could see out through the window. On the other side, he saw that his window was positioned at the top end of a T-shaped street intersection. Across the road were a few more shops, but he couldn't see much else from here due to all the lights being out. Despite his situation, a smile crept across his face.

He reached inside of his pocket for a moment, and then took his hand out out. After that, he flopped down onto the wooden bed and thought over the recent events he'd been through.

_Damn...my sister is good. I let my mind wander to thinking of escaping for just a moment, and wham, she picked right up on it. I always wondered if she had some kind of psychic power to tell when I was about to cause trouble when we were little kids. I know it for sure now, and unfortunately for me she's gotten really good with it._

_I do feel bad about hurting her though... Apparently she thought we'd be having a happy little reunion when we saw each other again. Instead though...she finds out I'm trying to kidnap one of Planet Freedom's lone saviors for money, Sonic of the Sonic Unit. If she's still emotional like when she was little, who knows how long it'll take her to get over this? I must have crushed her heart when she found out I'm still a criminal to this very day. _

The small smile on Nail's face faded away. Then, a moment later, his eyes furrowed and his gaze hardened. He stared at the lantern hanging from the ceiling, as the shadows from it danced across the cell walls.

_On the other hand...what a nice sister she was, _he thought sarcastically._Look athow she treated me over seeing me for the first time in eleven years. She just threw me in jail over thinking some little thoughts. And to think that I was seriously considering helping them rescue Sonic while they had me in there... _

_Well, that's all over now. I was gonna do it for her and for Sonic saving me earlier, right up until she said I was lying. Screw her if this is what she does for me. It's back to my old agenda again. Augustine can go take a hike too, if that's who she wants back. I don't even think of that as my name anymore anyway. _

The grin returned to Nail's face. He folded up his arms underneath his head, and closed his eyes. For the next half hour or so, he rested there, not moving an inch.

A little after one o' clock, his ears flicked towards the barred window in his cell. Nail's eyes shot open, and he vaulted off of the bed. Once again, he stood up on his tippy toes to look out the window. Only this time, instead of the street being deserted, a bright light was approaching him from the other end of the road. As the light got closer, it was joined by the sound of a motor.

Finally, his truck emerged into view as it turned next to the wall. The driver's side window rolled down, and Redrum poked his head out from inside.

"Heh...need a hand Nail?" Redrum laughed.

"Yes," Nail whispered, while rolling his eyes. "Keep it down though. We don't want the guards to hear you."

"All right," Redrum said, lowering his voice. "But how are we gonna get you out of there?"

"Back up the truck into the wall," Nail said, as he stuck his arms out through the bars and waved at the wall beneath the window. "Don't do it too hard though, cause this cell's pretty small. Just make a big enough hole for me to get out quickly."

"Are you sure?" Redrum asked, sounding worried. "Every soldier in the building will hear the crash, not to mention I might accidentally kill you."

"There's no time to come up with any other plans," Nail said. "The guards'll be on us soon one way or another I bet. Now hurry up and do it. And get ready to slip into the passenger's seat as soon as you've smashed the wall in."

"Will do," Redrum said. "But get ready!"

Redrum turned the truck around, and drove back up the street. Once he was about a third of the way up the road, the reverse lights came on and the truck shot backwards across the cobblestone. Meanwhile, Nail jumped away from the window, and flattened himself against the wall with his bed. He closed his eyes and covered his ears in anticipation of the crash.

With the sound of a deafening explosion, the truck smashed through the wall and sent bricks flying everywhere. A few of them slammed into Nail, but he grit his teeth and held in the pain. Opening his eyes, he saw one corner of his SUV sticking in through the wall. However, it quickly pulled back out, opening up a hole in the wall. Nail tried to fit himself through it...but it was too small.

A loud gong sounded in the building, which was answered by shouts and screams. No doubt the guards were coming to investigate. Nail nervously chewed his lip. He put his mouth next to the gap in the wall and shouted as loud as he could.

"Redrum! It's too small! Hit the wall again!"

The truck drove back up the road again, before Redrum threw it into reverse and backed it up. Nail jumped back, ducking behind his bed. Another rain of bricks flew into the room, but as Nail opened his eyes he saw the hole was now about the size of a manhole opening. He should be able to fit through that easily.

However, the cell door burst open behind him. Nail whirled around to see two guards standing there, all of them with their swords drawn. They took one look at the back end of the truck poking through the wall, and then back at Nail. Both of them looked totally bewildered, but the first one in the room, the turtle who'd spoken to him before, quickly regained his composure.

"Escaping, eh?" he said. "I don't think so!"

He tried to take a slice at Nail, with surprising speed for a turtle. However, Nail was still far faster than him, due to his species. He whirled around to the side, as the turtle struck a wall instead of him. Nail took the opportunity to pick up a large dislodged brick from the floor, so he wouldn't be completely unarmed.

The second guard, this one a black panther, tried to impale him on his own blade. Nail swung up the brick in front of him, and he caught the sword on it. The guard and Nail pushed against each other for a bit, with Nail using the brick to keep the sword away from his body, while the panther pushed harder on his sword. Finally though, the fox brought up one leg and kicked him in the groin. The panther dropped his sword and brought his hands to his crotch as he howled in pain. Nail took the opportunity to slam the brick down on his head. The block broke into pieces as it came into contact with the helmet, as the panther flopped down to the floor unconscious.

Unfortunately, by this time, the turtle guard was coming back for a second swing. Again though, his species proved to be his undoing. He made a slow overhead swing, which Nail sidestepped. The sword made sparks as it struck the stone floor. Not wanting to give the turtle another chance to attack, Nail kicked him in the back, sending him tumbling to the floor. While he wasn't unconscious, he'd been flipped over onto his back, and was thus rendered immobile since he was a turtle.

"Argh! I'll get you!" he screamed. "I'll get you!"

However, there wasn't much he could do except for wave his arms and legs around frantically as he tried to stand up. Nail chuckled a little at the sight.

"Sixty years, you said?" he said, chuckling. "It hasn't even been sixty minutes!"

Not wasting any more time, Nail clambered through the hole in the wall and out onto the street. Within a few seconds, he was already at the driver's side door, and opening it up. At the same time, Redrum was already shuffling into the passenger's seat. Nail could now hear shouts from the roof of the jail above them, and arrows started to whiz by the truck. Loud thunks sounded as they bounced off of the roof. However, the vulpine slammed the car door closed and hit the gas.

"Heh heh, you owe me big time Nail," Redrum said.

"I know...I know..." Nail sighed.

Suddenly, a question sprang to mind.

"You know," Nail whispered again. "I forgot, before I set off the tracker bug sewed into my pocket...you don't have any legs. How'd you drive up here without your legs to work the pedals?"

Redrum reached down, and showed him a long stick.

"Found this near the truck," he said. "Wasn't that good a substitute, but it was the best I could do. Anyway, I'm guessing the capture mission went sour since you got caught?"

"Yep."

"Just like I thought it would."

"It's not all bad Redrum. At least I got to see my sister, and I know where Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are gonna be in eleven hours or so."

Redrum was about to say something regarding Nail's sister, but he seemed to quickly push it aside as he heard that Nail knew where the bounties would be.

"Where are those three gonna be then?"

"Whisper Valley in Cictra. I overheard them talking that Nack's using Sonic as a hostage to lure them there."

Redrum's eyes expanded a bit.

"The hell? But how are we gonna get there in time? We'd have to travel across the entire country and up into Cictra to get there! Not to mention this truck's way too slow! We'll never make it there in time!"

"Don't worry. There's bound to be plenty of aircraft lying around at that airport they set up outside the city. We just steal the fastest plane we can find, and fly on up there."

"Sounds like a plan."

"It's the only plan we've got right now."

The truck drove off into the night, disappearing into the streets quickly.


	16. Chapter 15: Onesided Negotiations

**Chapter 15: One-Sided Negotiations**

**September 3rd, 2316 – 11:50 AM – Whisper Valley, Cictra **

For the fifth time in the last minute, Sonic blew a breath of warm air across his chest. He would have tried cupping his hands or curling up into a ball to get warmer, if only he wasn't held fast to the bars of his cage by chains. The arrangement gave him almost no wiggle room. So, he was forced to constantly maintain a sitting position with his arms fully spread out to the sides and his legs stuck out straight as a ruler. It didn't help that this metal cage he was locked up in was absorbing the cold from the surrounding area, and then transferring it to his body as he sat on the metal. All the while, he wished deeply he could just smash out of his prison, but even if he wasn't chained up, the bars were constructed of a special alloy that was impervious to his spin dashes.

Outside of his cage, a light snow trickled past from the cloudy sky overhead, making a thin white blanket on the ground. On three sides of the cage, he was surrounded by large, rough rocks, which were also getting covered in snow. On the last side he was facing, there was a steep drop off where the cliff was, and in the distance he could see the distant peaks of other mountains.

This was the direction he glared in, as he looked angrily at one of his two kidnappers. She'd called herself Canma, and right now she was dressed in a very comfortable-looking winter coat. As if looking at her all nice and warm wasn't bad enough, he could clearly see the key to his cage hanging from her belt.

Unfortunately, she was too far out of reach, as she sat on a nearby rock sharpening her sword with a smaller stone. The "shing shing" of the blade being carved against the rock was really starting to get to Sonic, especially with the way it echoed back to them from the valley. That made it sound like some sort of god was sharpening it instead of her, with how loud it was. Canma had told him that she'd start amputation his fingers, arms, and then his legs if Tails and Knuckles didn't get here by noon, and it was getting very close to that deadline.

Sonic turned his head, and rotated his arm as much as he could so he could see his watch. He gulped a little, as he realized it was now 11:55 am. If his friends didn't show up in the next five minutes, he'd have only four fingers on his right hand. Canma seemed to realize the deadline was closing in as well, as she slowly sat up from the rock to examine her handiwork. Satisfied, the vixen slowly approached the cage with the sharpened sword in hand, smiling unnervingly at Sonic with every step. Meanwhile, Sonic tensed up harder with every step she took, and began to try to free himself from his restraints as she opened the cage door with the key. All he managed to do was make a huge rattling racket, and nothing else.

"Please! Don't do this to me!" Sonic begged. "I'll do anything for you if you just give my friends some more time! What's it gonna take? Huh?"

Sonic vehemently hated begging, since it made him look so weak. However, the situation was getting so desperate that he was willing to try anything. Unfortunately, Canma didn't appear to react in any way to his pleads. She had finally reached him, and was now reaching for his right hand. All the while she had that same eerie smile on her face. However, as she started to extend his pinky out and place her sword against it, the smile extended into a devilish grin which displayed her sharp teeth. Sonic could feel the colt steel of the blade against his finger, as she gently pressed it against the fabric of the glove.

Before she went any further though, she froze in that position, and then turned to face Sonic.

"Time's up, I'm afraid," she said coolly. "It's time to punish your friends for their tardiness."

Sonic's eyes widened in terror. Meanwhile, Canma returned to her task nonchalantly, as if she were just sewing. Sonic closed his eyes and prepared for the horrifying pain.

However, before she could do it, a beeping noise sounded from the radio that Canma was wearing on her belt. While Sonic breathed a sigh of relief and opened his eyes, the vixen unclipped the radio from her belt and spoke into it.

"What is it? Are the other two here?" she said. She sounded annoyed, as if she'd just been interrupted during dinner.

"Yeah...they're here," Nack said on the other end, his voice distorted by the static. "Look to the north."

Canma turned around and stepped out of the cage. Once she was clear, she pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked up to the sky. While Sonic couldn't see anything, he could audibly hear the sound of a plane engine approaching. He could tell just by the sound that it was the Tornado 2, since he'd ridden in it so much.

Sonic smiled a little, but then his grin quickly faded away. He was happy, now that his friends were here. That meant he'd been momentarily spared from Canma's sword. However...he was unsure of what would happen now. A storm of questions ran through his head. Did they have a plan to free him? Would there be any other rescue attempts if Tails and Knuckles failed? Who was this client and what would he do with the three of them once they were delivered to him? What motive would he have for wanting them captured?

Sonic's thinking was interrupted as Canma turned back to look at him. "You're one lucky hedgehog. Looks like I won't need to cut you up, for now at least. It's a shame for me though... I was so looking forward to this."

"You poor girl..." Sonic said sarcastically.

"Don't start feeling sorry for me yet," Canma said, approaching the cage again. "If your friends try anything funny while Nack is collecting them, or if you try to yell for help, my orders are to begin the torture again. I just wish I could start right now though, since I've always wanted to do this..."

"What's your problem with me anyway?" Sonic said. "What did I do to you to make you like doing this to me?"

"Because you work directly for the human government, and thus you are a human lover," Canma said, hardening her gaze. "You are a traitor to the Freedomian race for allying yourself with those wretched furless monkeys, and for that I believe you should be punished. This planet was such a better place before they came here. Look at everything that Robotnik has done. If humans hadn't come here, we would have never suffered from his wrath! How can I love a race that could produce someone so evil?"

"But...even if I do work for humans, I'm only doing it to defeat Robotnik. I mean, if you hate him so much, why not just let me keep doing my job then? I know I'll get him eventually."

Canma got right in Sonic's face, and started yelling.

"So what if you're fighting against one human? You're still working in favor of all the others! Besides, if they're capable of producing one monster, they can make another one! The only answer to this problem is to get rid of them completely! As long as you and your friends are still free, you will continue to help them to flourish! I can't allow that!"

She stood up and strode back over to the cliff, looking down with her binoculars, while Sonic watched her in stony silence. It looked like Canma had more than one reason for going after the bounties. Sonic couldn't help but wonder what had made her hate humans so much.

**In the valley below...**

Amidst a few evergreen trees, Nack stood in the boot-high snow with his arms crossed, a thin smile on his face. He watched as the Tornado 2 did another flyover, apparently looking for a place to land. Wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, Nack decided to help them out in their search. He pulled out his radio and tuned it in to the frequency of the Tornado 2's radio. Once he was done, he began to speak into it.

"Hello, you two!" Nack said cheerfully. "Glad to see you've found us in time. We were starting to get worried that you might have gotten lost..."

"Cut the crap Nack!" Tails shouted back over the radio. "If you've laid a finger on Sonic—"

"Don't worry, little fox," Nack said reassuringly. "We haven't done anything yet, and we won't do anything at all if you'll just follow my instructions. Now, I'm sure you're searching for a place to land, right?"

"Uh...yeah?" Tails replied.

"There's an old decommissioned air strip just south of here. Once you're on the ground, head north into the valley to meet me. Got it?"

"Roger..." Tails said unenthusiastically.

The plane started heading south, and was soon out of sight due to the cloudy weather. Even the engine noise had faded away. Nack retuned his radio to the frequency of Canma's radio, and waited. Tails and Knuckles were quite punctual, arriving to meet Nack within just several minutes. As they both stormed towards him though, they looked like they were ready to tear him limb from limb. Fortunately, Nack and Canma had planned ahead for this.

Talking quickly, before one of them decided to rush him, Nack said, "If you're thinking of trying to attack me, you should think again. My partner Canma is watching us right now with binoculars, and if you come at me she'll start cutting up Sonic like a loaf of bread."

Giving a low grumble, Knuckles stopped in his tracks and folded up his arms. Tails stopped beside him. The two of them started to look around, apparently searching for Canma. Rolling his eyes, Nack pulled out his radio.

"Stop looking for her," Nack ordered. "Or I'll tell her to start slicing right now."

Once again, Knuckles gave a little growl at Nack, while baring his teeth. Tails spit at Nack's feet, and folded his arms. If looks could kill, Nack would be instantly vaporized into a pile of ashes between Sonic's two friends.

_Yeah... Well too bad for them. We've got Sonic, and they can't do shit as long as we do. _

"Let's go for a little stroll," Nack said, turning his back on them and walking through the valley to the north. "Remember: don't attack me unless you want Sonic to be brought back to you in pieces."

He heard footsteps behind him, signaling they were complying with his instructions. Everything was going according to plan. As long as they didn't know where Sonic was, Nack was in control. It was such a powerful feeling, to know that these guys could defeat him in an instant, but they were powerless with their friend's life at stake.

_That's why I don't have any friends. They'll just weigh you down and paralyze you with their own problems. _

The three of them walked past a small brook that drifted through the snow, and beneath some trees that swayed in a gentle breeze. Snowflakes wafted around all of them, giving the place a very peaceful and mystical feeling. Nack grinned, imagining that the beautiful environment probably felt like a mockery of the situation Sonic and his friends were in right now.

_Oh well... They won't have to think about it much longer. _

Nack led them through another group of evergreen trees, and stopped once he reached the other side of the thicket. Tails and Knuckles stopped too, apparently puzzled by Nack suddenly coming to a halt. They didn't have long to wonder about it though, as Nack pulled out a remote control and pressed a red button on it.

Suddenly, the snow beneath Tails and Knuckles exploded upward, as a rope net flew up from underneath the white. Before Tails and Knuckles could blink, the net wrapped around the two of them and entangled them. They were then pulled up high into the trees by ropes attached to the net, as they shouted for help that wouldn't be coming. Nack walked underneath the net as it swayed in the air and laughed. He pressed a purple button on his remote.

Purple _Sconocea _gas appeared from canisters he had hidden in the trees, and Knuckles and Tails were quickly concealed in the mist. Nack could hear some more yelling, but he didn't really care what they were saying at all. They'd finally done it; they'd captured all three bounties! Quickly, the shouting died away, and silence took its place again. After the gas faded, Nack pressed the red button again. The net descended back down to the ground, landing with a thump next to Nack.

He laughed, enjoying his triumph, before raising Canma on the radio.

"Mission complete, Canma! Tails and Knuckles have been caught. I'll be up there shortly. Pack our stuff up and get ready to leave."

"Good work Nack," Canma said. "I never imagined you'd come this far when I first met you."

"Yeah yeah, thanks," Nack said dismissively. "Save it for after we get our paychecks."

Nack turned off the radio and hurried towards the nearby thicket where he'd hidden his hover bike. He was going to hook up the net to his bike in order to airlift Knuckles and Tails up to the cage they had Sonic in. It was finally time to wrap up the mission and go collect the fruits of his labor.


	17. Chapter 16: Cold Pursuit

**Chapter 16: Cold Pursuit **

**September 3rd, 2316 – 12:30 PM – Whisper Valley, Cictra **

While Canma and Nack wrapped up and prepared to leave Whisper Valley, another visitor was fast approaching the same location. A sleek Learjet streaked through the sky towards the valley, going as fast as it could through the snowy sky. In the pilot's chair was Nail, dressed in a heavy blue coat instead of his usual blue T-shirt. Meanwhile, in the back, Redrum was propped up on a box and was using the mini bar inside the plane as a table to check over their weapons.

Wine and champagne bottles on the shelves above the bar twinkled in the lights of the cabin. Nail had considered trying out a few of them when they first broke into the plane, but then he decided that now was definitely not the best time to be getting drunk. He needed to be fully alert if he was going to get this jet to Whisper Valley in time. Instead, he wondered just how wealthy the person was who owned this jet.

_He's really goddamn rich, whoever he is. This jet alone would cost millions, but tack on that mini bar stocked with all those rare vintages, and I wouldn't be surprised if he owned a sprawling estate, an entire garage of super cars, and a yacht too. _

Nail grinned and chuckled to himself.

"What's so funny?" Redrum said, calling up from the back.

"Oh nothing," Nail replied, putting a lid on his giggles. "I'm just thinking about how pissed off the guy who owns this jet is going to be when he finds out its missing."

Redrum laughed back.

"Nah...I doubt he'd miss it. He's probably got an entire hangar of these back at his mansion or wherever he lives."

"True...true. But damn! This jet is nice! No way I'd ever be able to afford something like this in my entire lifetime."

"You just might, if we can get back Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in time."

Nail paused, but then he feebly replied, "Yeah..."

"Hey...that reminds me. How'd your meeting with your sister go? In all the rush I forgot to ask you about it."

Nail swallowed a moment, before he responded, "Forget about it. She...ended up getting me tossed in jail because I kidnapped Sonic. I say if she's going to treat me like that after all these years, screw her. She asked me to save Sonic, so now I think I'm gonna do the opposite just to spite her. I'm not going to let myself wander from our mission anymore, Redrum. You have my word."

"Great then!" Redrum chuckled. "I was worried that sister of yours would screw around with your head, with how you told me she was all goody two-shoes when you lived with her. Glad to see you've still got it under control though."

"Yeah, I got it under control..." Nail repeated. "All under control..."

_To be perfectly honest with myself though, I do feel bad about hurting her, when she found out I was the one who kidnapped Sonic. Almost makes me feel like wanting to stop all this. But, it's not like I can just suddenly throw away this life over one little conversation I had, even if God was kind enough to let me see Carrie again. _

_Even if I wanted to stop being a mercenary, it's not like I can just leave the underground world and start an ordinary life. I've done a lot of stuff in my time, and so people on both sides of the law would love to see me dead or arrested. Not to mention I never even finished elementary school. The best job I'd be able to get with that kind of formal education would be a checkout clerk at a grocery store, and I definitely don't want to spend the rest of my life stuffing bags for elderly ladies. I sure wouldn't like going back to school either... _

He let out a sigh.

Through the snow streaking past the window in front of him, he could see their destination coming up. Nail was thankful this country was where he was born and raised for so many years. Otherwise, he might have missed the valley completely. From memory, he also recalled there was an abandoned runway on the south end of the valley. Fortunately though, they were already on the proper end, and he could see the old hangars and a crumbled control tower sitting next to a broad clearing. Nail could also faintly see the Tornado 2 on the ground, so that meant that Knuckles and Tails were already here.

He smiled a bit, knowing that it would still be possible to get all the money. However, this was gonna be tricky. Nack and his partner were going to be in the area, in addition to Tails and Knuckles. Not to mention...

"Redrum...you better buckle up," Nail said, as he lowered the landing skis. "This is gonna be a rough landing."

"I figured that..." Redrum said, as Nail heard him climb into a seat.

"There's a runway, but it's covered by snow and ice. This plane has skis for landing in cold weather, but it's still gonna be dangerous, so hang on."

"Sure man," Redrum replied, buckling up. "I know you can do this. You've got experience behind the stick."

Nail smiled.

"Well thanks for the vote of confidence then. But get ready, because here we go."

Nail adjusted his course towards the runway, using the tracks that the Tornado 2 had left in the snow as a guide for lining up. He figured that if Tails safely landed that way, he should be able to do the same.

_If I hadn't read it in his profile, I would never believe that an eight-year-old could fly a plane, much less land it in these conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if his balls are already growing in, if he's courageous enough to pull this off! There's no way I would have been able to do the same thing when I was eight. Hell, I hadn't even been in an airplane yet. _

Nail realized he was letting his mind wander, and abruptly focused his attention back to the matter at hand. The ground was rapidly approaching, as his altimeter lowered. The Tornado 2's tracks steadily increased in size as he got closer and closer. Nail gently pulled back on the stick, and the jet tilted upward. The skis made contact with the ground, rattling the entire plane in the process. Nail then pulled on the airbrake.

The plane shuddered as it came to a halt, and the fox felt his body being pressed forward into the seatbelt. He winced as the strap pressed into his body, trying to maintain his concentration at the same time. Normally Nail would go easier on the brakes, but this runway was short, and it was also covered with ice that compounded the problem. He had to stop this plane, and he had to stop it quickly.

Already Nail could see the Tornado 2 in front of them rapidly growing in size. In another few seconds, he wouldn't be able to see the entire thing in his windshield anymore. He nervously chewed his lip, as he glanced between the window and his speedometer. He could make out Tails' tails symbol on the rear wing of the Tornado 2, and the Learjet still hadn't stopped. Nail closed his eyes and braced for the impact.

However, it didn't come, and the plane came to a stop. Nail opened his eyes, and looked out the window. He saw that the front of the plane was just inches away from hitting the tail of the Tornado 2. A sigh of relief escaped Nail's mouth.

"If I still had a digestive system," Redrum spoke up. "I think I would have shit myself watching us land."

Nail chuckled a bit, liking that Redrum was lightening the mood. He headed towards the back of the plane, where Redrum had just finished unbuckling himself, and was now "standing" using his arms to prop himself up.

"I got your favorite rifle ready while we were flying Nail," Redrum said. "Got both the lethal .338 magnum rounds and the nonlethal tranquilizer darts ready."

"Thanks a lot, Redrum," Nail said, looking down at him. "I owe ya one."

"Damn right you do!" Redrum said, hitting one of the fox's knees with one hand. "You would have never gotten out of that jail if I hadn't been there to save you."

"Well I guess we're even now then," Nail smiled. "You saved me from jail, and I saved you from being a slave to Robotnik's programming."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Redrum said, as he pointed to the minibar. "I left your gun right there."

Nail nodded and walked past him. A military green sniper rifle lay on the polished wood, complete with a powerful scope, a bipod to steady aim, and several clips of ammunition. Nail was very partial to this weapon, for all the history he had with it but now was not the time to dwell on it. He had to earn his twenty million demens to make today...

_But what will doing this do to Carrie?_

He stared at the gun hard, weighing his choices. Suddenly, he felt someone grab him by the leg, and looked down to see Redrum.

"Well?" he asked. "Are you gonna pick it up or are we just gonna stay in here staring at it all day? We gotta get a move on if we're gonna get Sonic and his friends!"

Nail shook his head.

"Sorry, you're right," Nail said, picking up the gun, as he also picked up a magazine loaded with the lethal ammunition.

Meanwhile,Redrum continued to talk as he loaded the clip into the receiver.

"Since I got no legs, I wouldn't be much help out there I think. Do you think I should just stay behind and keep an eye on the plane?"

"Nah," Nail replied. "You can piggyback on me, and then when I find a good spot to shoot from, you can get off and act as my spotter.

He pulled a pair of binoculars out of a nearby box and held it out to Redrum. The half-robot dog took them and used their strap to hold it around his neck.

"Sounds good to me," Redrum said. "Now let me get on your back."

"Okay," Nail said, kneeling.

Redrum climbed on his back and wrapped his arms around Nail's neck. Once that was done, the fox stood up and headed for the exit hatch. With the press of a button, the hatch lowered with a hiss, revealing an endlessly white landscape beyond, with snowflakes swirling past in the wind.

Nail grinned, feeling right at home. In fact, he hardly noticed the cold, since he was so used to it from growing up here. He eagerly stepped out of the hatch and walked across the snow, his boots crunching in the soft powder.

"You sure we're in the right place?" Redrum asked.

"Yeah...I distinctly heard them say Whisper Valley was the rendezvous point."

"Do you know where in the valley?"

"No, I don't. Anyway, we better stop with the chatter now. It could give us away. Don't talk again until I say it's all right for you to do it, or unless it's really important."

"Got it."

"From this point on, don't say a word."

Redrum nodded a little. They trudged onward through the snowy valley, past groves of trees and a small stream. They didn't meet a single soul the entire journey. To Nail though, this place didn't feel deserted. He wasn't sure about it, but he felt like there were people nearby...

His hunch was proven true, as he heard the sound of a jet engine igniting nearby. His ears rotated to identify the source of the sound, and he determined it was coming from the west. Looking in that direction, he saw Nack's hover bike rising into view from the tops of the mountains bordering the valley.

Nail dashed to hide behind a nearby tree, and whispered, "Redrum, binoculars."

Redrum passed them to him, and Nail held them up to his eyes with one hand. Through them, he could clearly see Nack and Canma riding on their bike, with a cage tied to the bottom of the craft. Inside he could clearly spot Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Nail frowned.

"That bastard's got all three of them," Nail growled.

"Why don't you shoot at 'em or something?" Redrum said back.

"I can't," Nail said. "Because if I shoot Nack or the bike, the bike will just crash and kill everyone. Then we won't get paid because our bounties are dead. We'll just have to try to follow them and wait for a better opportunity to strike."

"But how? It'll take too long to get back to the plane, and we'll never keep up if we chase them on foot!"

"Don't get worried," Nail said in a reassuring voice. "I know a thing or two about this place since I've been here before. I used to live in this country you know. There was a very good reason they chose this place for the rendezvous, and we can take advantage of that."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a warp zone nearby that leads to a place close to the drop off point. It's arranged so that whoever gets there first calls the client to come over, so they'll have to land and wait for him to show up. That's when we'll kill Nack and Canma, and then we'll get back the bounties just in time to hand them over to the client."

"Glad to know there's still some hope for us."

"Yeah...but we better get a move on. I'm betting we're only going to have a short time to pull this off."

"Well, let's go then! We've got twenty million demens to earn today!"

Nail nodded, and took off running through the snow, after Nack's hover bike.

**Up in the air... **

Nack carefully piloted his hover bike close to the bottom of the valley. He was flying so low that the cage strapped to the bottom of the vehicle grazed the snow a few times. It would probably send snow spraying inside the cage through the bars, but Nack didn't really care about the comfort of Sonic and his friends. After all, as long as they were alive, it didn't matter how banged up they were when he delivered them to the client.

At the end of the valley ahead of them, he could see a soft blue glow behind the trees. That was a warp portal to the Land of Darkness, where the drop off point was. According to his warp hole map, it would drop them off within just a few minutes' flight of the client's rendezvous point. That was the very reason why they'd chose this spot to capture Tails and Knuckles. Otherwise, they would have definitely picked a place that was warmer. Nack had been freezing cold the entire time.

Fortunately, it wouldn't be bothering him for much longer since they were almost upon the warp hole. The swirling blue circle in front of them bathed everything in a bluish tint, as they got closer and closer. Finally, the front of the bike hit the blue circle and went right through. Nack soon passed through as well. It was kind of like going through a curtain of water, only without getting wet. The feeling felt strange, but it only lasted for a second or two.

Soon they were on the other side. A swirling vortex of colors all around greeted them, as they headed through the warp dimension. It would have been an amazing sight to anybody who'd seen it for the first time, but Nack had long since gotten used to it due to living on this planet all his life. He was also a little too busy right now trying to hold the bike steady, as Canma held on by wrapping her arms around Nack's chest.

The weasel grinned a little at her holding onto him, because this was the only time she was willing to do that. Nack had tried to make some advances on her at other times before, but she'd repeatedly denied his offers, always saying they needed to keep their mind on this mission. He supposed she was right, but it annoyed the hell out of him. It wasn't like they had anything else to do while they were waiting for Tails and Knuckles to show up...

Another blue circle waited for them at the end of the vortex, indicating the end of the warp zone. After passing through the other side, they found themselves in the Land of Darkness. Specifically, they were in the country of Reppoc. Nack didn't really care what country it was though, because almost everywhere down here looked about like this: a pitch-black sky created by the bottom of the Land of the Sky overhead, and endless dark forests below, which were occasionally broken up by mountains, rivers, or whatever. This area was no different.

He turned the bike to the east, as he turned for the rendezvous point. Within a few minutes, the place came into view. A grassy field greeted his eyes, the green occasionally broken up by large boulders and rocks jutting up from the ground. It reminded Nack of a place he'd heard about that was on Earth, but he couldn't remember the name that well.

_What was it again? Somehenge? Stonewenge? Oh well...it doesn't really matter. It's not like the client won't give me the money if I don't know the name._

"We've finally made it, Canma," Nack said.

"At long last..." she said with a sigh. "This whole mission's been nerve-wracking from the beginning. Can't wait to get that money and start enjoying it..."

Nack settledthe cage down into a relatively clear spot towards the edge of the clearing, and landed the bike nearby. As he dismounted from the bike, Canma began to speak up again.

"So where's the client?" Canma asked. "This is the right meeting place, isn't it?"

"Yeah...we're in the right spot," Nack replied. He pulled out his radio and adjusted the frequency. "We're supposed to contact the client so he'll know we're out here and ready for him. I guess he didn't want to be left waiting out here for too long."

Nack hit the talk button and brought the receiver up to his mouth.

"Attention...Attention... Is this Mr. Kenny Oviron?" he said.

Through a hiss of static, a squealing voice came through on the other end.

"Yes...yes...this is Mr. Oviron speaking. What is it?"

"We've got your bounties. All three of them. Sonic Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles Echidna. They're alive and ready for collection, and we're ready for our payment."

"Heh heh, don't worry about your payment! You'll have it soon. I'll be there to personally make the exchange in about fifteen minutes."

Nack narrowed his eyes and put on a toothy grin at the same time.

"Good. We'll be waiting."

Nack turned off the radio.

_Well, that's it. With the bounties secure, and the client on his way, I don't need Canma anymore. Good boy time is over. A shame I never got to enjoy her... Oh well. With all the money I get out of this, I can have all the women I want._

He placed the radio back into his belt. Then, in one swift motion, he swiped the revolver out of his holster, and whirled around to point it at Canma's face. He managed to do that...but she also had her sword pointed at his throat.

"I'm afraid our partnership is over now," Canma said.


	18. Chapter 17: Broken Contracts

**Chapter 17: Broken Contracts**

**September 3rd, 2316 – 12:50 PM – Reppocian Wilderness **

Nack stared at Canma in shock. Had she really said exactly what he was planning to say, verbatim? Was she planning the entire time to betray him, just as he was? Nack just looked at Canma for a moment, before the words sank in. Regaining his composure, he started talking again.

"That's my line!" he shouted, edging the barrel of his gun closer to her head. "I'm the one who's supposed to be breaking the partnership here!"

Now it was Canma's turn to look surprised.

"You were planning to betray me too, as soon as you didn't need me anymore?" she asked.

Nack grinned, and chuckled a bit. Canma giggled a bit as well.

"Great minds think alike," Nack said. "So...what should we do now? Just stand here and have a staring contest?"

"I've got a better idea," Canma answered. "Let's fight to the death, right here and now. The winner gets to keep Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and thus the twenty million demen reward."

"Sounds like a great idea to me, because now I know for sure that reward's gonna be all mine."

"Likewise. Let's begin!"

Canma went into a back flip as she leaped away onto the top of a nearby rock. Meanwhile, Nack used his pogo tail to bounce backwards, as he placed his left hand over the hammer of his revolver. He slapped the hammer down hand as he fired the trigger with his right hand, thus firing off three shots in a row with his fanning technique. Canma jumped into a back flip again, as she landed behind the rock. The bullets harmlessly ricocheted off of the stone.

Nack bounced back and flew over the stone, while he pointed his revolver down to target the vixen. But...she wasn't on the other side of the rock. He looked around as he zoomed through the air, and then he saw a purple blur flying up towards him from behind. The blur was holding a sword. With a battle cry, Canma sliced the air in a broad swing as she approached. Before she could cut him though, Nack kicked her. The vixen gasped in pain as she fell down towards the ground, but she landed on her feet. Meanwhile, Nack landed on his feet too, facing her.

"Not bad!" Canma said. "You're better than I thought!"

"Better? I'm the best!" Nack shouted, as he fanned his revolver again, firing off another three shots.

One bullet missed, and the other two Canma deflected with her sword. Nack looked at her in stunned disbelief. He raised the gun to fire again, but instead of a gunshot all he got was a click. He didn't realize before that he'd already fired off all six shots in his magazine. Canma heard the click too, and rushed towards him with her sword in hand, ready to cut him in half. Gasping, Nack ducked down. He felt her blade cut right through his cowboy hat, leaving nothing on it but the brim.

_Gah! That was my backup hat!_

He pogo jumped away from Canma behind a rock. Frantically, he pulled six loose rounds out of his bandolier and started stuffing them in his gun. As he was putting in the last bullet, a shadow blocked out the light overhead. Nack didn't need to think at all about what it was, and rolled aside. A quarter second later, Canma slammed down her sword in the spot that his head had been in just before. Unfortunately for her, the blade got stuck in the ground, and she grunted as she tried to pull it out.

Nack grinned, seeing his chance. He slammed in the last bullet, and aimed the revolver at her head. Even as he fired, Canma jumped to the side, running away from the stuck sword. She dashed behind another rock. Though she had dodged his bullets, Nack didn't mind at all, because now she was unarmed. He chuckled to himself as he chased her around the boulder. Nack held his revolver up, planning to fire as soon as he caught sight of Canma again.

Before he could fire though, a small throwing dagger streaked towards him from behind the corner. Nack moved to dodge, but the knife knocked the gun right out of his hand. It bounced off of a boulder nearby and clattered to the ground. Nack rushed over to pick it up and got his hand around the grip of the gun. Before he could raise it up, a boot stomped down on his hand, pressing it and the gun to the ground and causing him to cry out in pain.

Nack looked up and saw Canma standing over him with two small throwing daggers in her hands. She smiled down at him, seemingly ready to cut him up like she was going to do to Sonic earlier. The purple fox screamed a battle cry as she plunged the knives down towards the top of his skull.

Unfortunately for her though, Nack had already pulled the pin on a flash grenade and dropped it. A loud bang filled the air, made worse by the fact that the grenade was so close by. The light blinded both of them temporarily as well. While he heard Canma jump off, Nack stumbled away as fast as he could, trying to get the blinding white light out of his eyes. He bumped his head against a rock in the process.

However, his vision finally managed to clear, and he began to look around to see where he was. It looked like Nack managed to stumble back to where Canma had left her sword stuck in the ground. Impulsively, he yanked it out of the ground. It sure was heavier than it looked, once he got it all the way out. Nack wondered how Canma was able to wield it with such ease, as if it weighed no more than a feather.

While he was armed now, it wasn't with the weapon he preferred. He needed to get back his revolver. Nack dashed back around the rock again, towards where he'd dropped it a few seconds before. On the way, Canma greeted him by aiming his gun at his face.

And yet, Nack broke out into laughter at the sight. She was holding onto the revolver by its barrel and pointing it at him by using the grip. The only thing she'd manage to shoot holding the gun like that would be her foot. Regardless, she pulled the trigger anyway, and jumped in surprise as a bullet ricocheted off the ground at her feet. The gun fell from her fingers and bounced off of the ground.

Meanwhile Nack took a swing at her with her own sword, but Canma whirled aside in mid swing. Then she hit him across the back of his head with her arm, sending him toppling to the ground as the sword fell from his hand. However, that caused him to fall with his hands landing right on his gun, and he picked it up. He whirled around on the ground and pointed it at Canma's head. However, at the same time she had her sword pointed at his neck. Both of them were breathing heavily, the adrenaline rush getting to them.

_This is really getting old..._

"Looks like we're both pretty much dead even when it comes to fighting," Nack gasped out, between breaths.

"Agreed," Canma answered. "So what are we gonna do? Just keep fighting until we both die of exhaustion?"

Before Nack could answer, there was a loud gunshot in the distance. About a half second later, a bullet bit into the dirt next to them, sending up a cloud of dust in their faces. It sounded like a sniper rifle, and there was only one person Nack could think of right now who'd be after them with that type of gun: Half. That was his favorite weapon, and the gun he was also the best with. If they stayed out here just a bit longer, he'd take both of them out from afar. Nack and Canma looked at each other, and nodded. They both jumped up and ran in opposite directions, as they dashed to get out of Half's crosshairs. Looks like it would be a three-way battle for the money now...

**Over in the woods...**

Nail grinned, as he lay in a prone position on top of a hill overlooking the field. He had one eye stuffed right into his riflescope, as he moved to point his gun at Canma or Nack, whichever one he saw first. Meanwhile, Redrum lay in the grass beside him, with binoculars in hand so that he could spot for him.

"Nail..." he said. "Eleven o' clock... I saw Nack go behind that rock over there."

Nail adjusted his aim and positioned his crosshairs on the boulder Redrum was talking about.

"Guess you'll have to wait till he comes out to pop him, right?" he asked.

"No need," Nail answered back, as he flicked on thermal mode on his rifle. He could now tell how hot or cold something was by looking through his scope. The rock was a dark blue, indicating no heat. However, he could make out Nack as plain as day on the other side, thanks to his red and yellow heat signature.

Nail gently squeezed the trigger, and saw that bullet had cleanly passed through the rock and out the other side, just between Nack's legs. With the help of his thermal scope, Nail saw the weasel jump in surprise as the bullet almost took out his crotch. He chuckled, enjoying himself as he startled the weasel.

_I can see you two, no matter where you are out there. You've got no place to hide from my bullets. I was just playing around with those first two shots, but now I'm going to fight seriously. _

"Three o' clock Nail..." Redrum said. "Canma's over there."

Again, Nail repositioned his aim, targeting the vixen this time. That bitch was going to pay for stealing out Sonic from under his nose, back when he was fighting Nack the first time in the woods. He spied her taking cover behind another large boulder...peeking out from behind the rock. Nail positioned his crosshairs between her eyes, and squeezed off another shot. However, just as he fired she ducked to the side, dodging the bullet.

_Damn, she's got some good reflexes! Canma was able to dodge as soon as she heard the gunshot, and that would only leave her about half a second to do that at this range. _

Nail zoomed in again, seeing that she was taking cover behind the rock. A fat lot of good that would do her though... Nail squeezed off another shot, this one aimed at her chest. She went into a cartwheel to the side, and then took off sprinting through the rocky field...straight towards their position.

"Shit," Nail whispered. "We've been spotted."

"Let's run then!" Redrum said.

Nail got up from his prone position, and kneeled down to let Redrum climb on his back. The robot dog easily got on, and Nail stood up straight again. However, as he headed around a tree, he collided with somebody.

Nail looked up, and saw someone he never expected to see there. His jaw fell open in shock. This wasn't Canma at all; it was much worse. Red fur...white gloves...dreadlocks... It was Knuckles! And he had the scariest smile on his face that Nail had ever seen, like he was contemplating which of his bones to break first.

Nail started, "What the f--!"

However, he was cut short when Knuckles slammed a fist into his chest. Nail felt his eyes bulge out in his sockets, as his stomach caved in. He doubled over, as he dropped his gun and Redrum slid off of his back. For a few seconds, Nail just groaned in pain, before collapsing to his knees. That punch had knocked the wind right out of him.

He looked up, to see Redrum trying to fight Knuckles despite having no legs. However, Knuckles easily picked up the robot dog by his neck and held him up. While Redrum was certainly in no danger of choking to death since he didn't need to breathe, it was obvious he wasn't going to break out of Knuckles' grip. Even though it looked like the dog was pushing his limbs to their strength limit to pry off the echidna's hand, Knuckles seemed to just be enjoying himself as he watched Redrum struggle.

"Lemme go!" he screamed. "Lemme go you bastard!"

Nail then remembered he still had his handgun in the holster on his belt, and started to reach for it. Before he could though, Knuckles rushed over to him and grabbed his arm. He painfully twisted it around behind his back while Nail screamed and dropped the pistol.

"Nuh-uh...my little foxy friend," Knuckles said. "I think that's enough playtime for today. It looks like Carrie was totally right about you. You're still the same greedy scum you were back at her room! I can't believe you're really her brother! If it were up to me, I think I'd give you the worst beat down of your life right now for everything you've done to her, me, Tails, and Sonic."

Nail turned around and glared at Knuckles.

"Lucky for you though, it's not up to me," he said with a frown. "Now get up! Go towards the center of that field over there. I'll carry your little dog buddy for you."

"But...but they're still fighting..." Nail stammered out, referring to Canma and Nack.

"Oh no they're not..." he said with a smile. He kicked Nail a bit. "I said get up!"

Not wanting to suffer the wrath of one of Knuckles' punches again, Nail struggled to his feet. Knuckles swiftly tied up his arms and Redrum's arms with some rope he had. Then, Knuckles gestured towards the field, and Nail started walking towards it. Meanwhile Knuckles carried Redrum in his other arm as he walked behind Nail. As they walked though...Nail wondered just exactly what was going on. The last thing he'd seen, Knuckles and Tails were both fast asleep in the cage, while Sonic had been tied up...

As they entered the clearing, he saw Tails and Sonic standing in the center of the rock field. Between the two of them was Canma and Nack forced into a kneeling position. Both of them were stripped of their weapons and had their arms tied behind their backs, as well as their feet being tied up. Their weapons had also been taken off of them, and laid in a small pile a good distance away. Nack and Canma both had the same puzzled looks Nail had on his face.

"Heh heh," Sonic laughed, as he faced Knuckles. "Good work Knuckles! Looks like we got all of them!"

"Yeah!" Tails said cheerfully. "He got Canma, and I got Nack."

"Sure sure, great," Knuckles mumbled.

He forced Nail to kneel like Canma and Nack, and tied up his legs too. Redrum was placed next to him. He heard the clatter of his weapons being dropped to the ground nearby.

"Could someone kindly explain to me now how the three of you are walking around and kicking our asses?" Nack said, looking at the three bounties. "Last I saw, Sonic was all tied up and Tails and Knuckles were asleep."

Tails and Knuckles laughed.

"Did you really think you could get us with that gas again?" Tails asked between laughs. "That's the third time you've used it on us! I think we'd be expecting it this time, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Canma asked. "Me and Nack saw both of you get caught right in the middle of the gas cloud!"

"Yep...we did," Knuckles said. He pulled out a tiny black bottle in his hand. It looked a bit like a perfume bottle. "But we had these with us, which Tails made. They contain a small supply of oxygen we can breathe from. So...when you used that crazy purple gas again, we just pulled these out, breathed from them until the gas faded, hid them again, and pretended to go to sleep. You and Nack fell for it easy!"

Canma scowled between Tails and Knuckles, while they smiled victoriously back.

"After that, we just pretended to stay asleep for a while," Tails said. "We were thinking of just arresting you all right away, but we decided to find out what this client of yours looks like first. So we just pretended to sleep for a while until took us to the drop off site, and then I used my hidden set of tools to break us out of the cage."

"If this 'client' of ours wants us so bad..." Knuckles said with a grin. "...then he is going to get us."

"Heh heh," Sonic laughed. "Great work you two! Nice job all around! Gimme a high five!"

"Hah," Knuckles said, chuckling. He raised his hand. "I can only give three!"

Sonic and his friends laughed. Meanwhile, Nail just zoned out from what was happening, and closed his eyes. He let out a sigh of defeat, as he heard the rumble of a thunderstorm in the distance.


	19. Chapter 18: Losing Battle

**Chapter 18: Losing Battle **

**September 3rd, 2316 – 1:10 PM – Reppocian Wilderness**

Nack sighed again, listening to the low rumble of an approaching storm. The thunder lasted for another five seconds. Then ten. Then fifteen. Not to mention, it was also getting louder. Nail's eyes popped open, and he looked around, towards the source of the noise. For the second time in about ten minutes, his mouth opened in shock. It wasn't another one of Sonic's friends though.

A horde of robotic soldiers was thundering across the field towards them, as tanks smashed through the trees and pushed aside rocks. Up in the air, jet fighters buzzed through the sky, deafening him with the sound of their exhaust. All of them were painted black and had Robotnik's emblem upon them. After noticing that, he also saw the big man himself hovering in his egg ship above his army, looking down gleefully at the seven of them in the middle of the rocky field. He held up a microphone.

"Nack, Canma, Nail, and Redrum... You all did a marvelous job collecting Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles! I'm afraid that I don't have twenty million demens to pay you with for your services though, so you'll just have to settle for a night in my luxurious jail cells instead! And Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles...don't worry about being left out! You'll get just the same treatment!"

Nack turned around and saw that more soldiers, tanks, and planes were moving in from all other sides of the field. One word was all it took to sum up how he felt about the situation.

"Shit."

This entire mission had been nothing but a hoax. Kenny Oviron didn't exist, and neither did the twenty million demens. They weren't going to be rewarded in any way for all their trouble, except for a night in a cell and probably a free go in a roboticizer the next morning. They wouldn't even have their freedom any more. And all of that really pissed Nack off.

He started to get up, but then forgot he was still bound by the ropes. However, the weasel felt someone grabbing him from behind and cutting the ropes. He turned around to see Sonic doing it, of all people. He had pulled out one of his own quills to do it.

"What are you—?" he started.

"There's no way me, Tails, and Knuckles can take them all by ourselves," Sonic interrupted. "We need help. Besides, since Robotnik screwed you and the others over, we're all in the same boat now."

"Yeah..." Nack shrugged. "That's true."

Nack looked back, and he saw Tails and Knuckles cutting free the other three bounty hunters with quills Sonic had loaned to them as well. They were all moving to collect their weapons too. Finally, Sonic cut through the ropes around his feet, and now Nack could stand up. As the weasel got to his feet, Sonic shoved Nack's revolver into his hand. Nack stared at Sonic in surprise.

"Good luck!" he said, giving a thumbs-up.

The hedgehog then turned around and dashed straight for the approaching horde of robot soldiers, leaving a trail of flames in his path as he ran. Nack just blinked, surprised at Sonic being so quick to trust him. He'd never dash off to battle that quickly, knowing that a soldier carrying a grudge against him was at his back...

A laser blast sizzled right past Nack's hand. It was so warm it made his hand feel like he'd just touched it against a hot pot on a stove. This was no time to be thinking about what he would and would not do if he were in Sonic's shoes, because he had to be Nack right now. He flipped the cylinder out, and saw that the gun was fully loaded. Nodding, he took cover behind a rock, and raised the pistol to the approaching crowd of soldiers. Nack fanned the gun, firing off all six shots in less than a few seconds. However, he only succeeded in bringing down three soldiers, which were quickly replaced by six more anyway.

He checked his bandolier, and saw that he only had six bullets left. That was only enough to refill his pistol this one last time. After those shots were gone, he'd be unarmed. Nack nervously chewed his lip, as he started filling up the gun again. Once that was done, he cursed himself for not bringing more ammo with him from his hover bike.

_Wait...my bike..._

He looked around, and finally spotted it to his right. The line of soldiers still hadn't passed by it yet... A wicked smile crossed his face. It looked like he wouldn't have to fight this losing battle after all.

_Screw the others! I'm getting my ass out of the fire right now! They're already dead anyway if they're challenging an army this size._

Ducking low, he crouch-ran towards his bike as he dodged the laser fire. Fortunately though, since Robotnik's soldier bots had really crappy aim as usual, he made it easily. With the twist of a key, the bike roared to life. It wasn't a moment too soon either, as the soldiers were now getting uncomfortably close.

Frantically, he toggled the control to engage the hover jets, and the bike rose into the air. Before he could get far though, he heard the thump of something landing on the back of his ride. Turning around, he saw it was Canma. There wasn't any time to push her off, so he decided to just let her stay put. Even though they were fighting before, he really doubted she'd try to kill him since he was saving her.

"Hey! Hey!" Nail screamed on the ground. "Don't go! We're gonna die!"

Nack gazed down with a grin, seeing Nail jump up and down while waving his arms. Redrum clung to his back as well, bouncing up and down as the fox leaped again and again. If this were any other time, Nack would have thought this scene would be exceptionally funny and most personally satisfying, now that his rival was taking the fall. However, Nack's bike was about to be overrun, so he had to fly away quickly. That damn fox just wouldn't stop yelling though...

Grumbling, Nack turned around and fired a single bullet at Nail. A splatter of red blood came out from the fox's lower left leg, and Nail screamed out in agony as he collapsed to the ground, unable to stand anymore due to the gunshot wound. Nack smiled maliciously.

_That felt so good. Not to mention the robots will focus on him since he's much easier prey now. Two birds with one stone. _

Nack turned around and engaged the jet, sending the bike shooting forward and away from the battlefield. Nobody pursued them; not even the hover jets changed their course. Apparently their top priority was to capture Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, while other targets were of secondary importance.

He decided he'd turn around to look at the fighting, now that he had a better view of it. There was quite a lot of shooting going on...not to mention a variety of explosions here and there. Several blasts sent an entire squad of robot soldiers flying into the air like rag dolls. Looked like Sonic and company weren't doing so bad...but Nack doubted that would last for long.

Oddly, he noticed Canma was also staring back. However, instead of smiling like him, she almost looked like she was ready to cry. He wondered what was up.

"Hey Canma...wishing you stayed down there, eh?" Nack chided.

For a moment, it was like she didn't hear him. Then she turned around and shook her head.

"No... It's nothing. Let's just get out of here."

Nack nodded, and engaged the afterburners. The bike shot away from the war zone like a rocket, leaving Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Nail, and Redrum alone to face the largest army on the planet.

**On the ground...**

Sonic smashed through yet another robotic soldier, instantly turning it into a pile of scrap metal and smashed circuitry. But, he didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. This was the twentieth he'd destroyed in the last minute or so, but there were plenty of others to deal with anyway. There didn't seem to be any end to them. It looked like Robotnik hadn't wanted to take any chances in transporting Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles back to his prison.

Sonic's fatigue really started to get to him, and it was only going to get worse if he didn't get a chance to rest. However, right now him getting rest anytime soon looked about as likely as him winning the lottery a hundred times in a row.

"Oh Sonic... Feeling tired?" Robotnik boomed out from above, with the help of his loudspeaker. "Why don't you just give up? You'll have plenty of time to rest in your jail cell."

Sonic let out a growl of rage, and sent himself hurling once again at the crowd of robots that was surrounding him. He took down another four or five of them with one spin dash, but they just kept coming... There had to be hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of them here...

Sonic had only been out here fighting for about five minutes, but already he felt as if he'd ran across the globe several times over. His arms and legs felt like they were made of iron...and each breath wheezed out from his mouth as the constant fighting sapped at his dwindling stamina. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. Sure, he and his friends had fought Robotnik's army many times in the past, but they'd never faced such a large force all at the same time.

The laser blasts felt like they were coming in greater numbers and at faster speeds too. Sonic continued to bob and weave to avoid the bright spears of light, as he took down more and more of the machines. It was all like a blur, as Sonic's body moved unconsciously. Despite the hedgehog beating them back again and again, slowly and steadily the robot soldiers gained ground on him.

I don't want it to end...not like this. But I don't see a way I can change anything. I'm totally surrounded, I'm getting exhausted, and I've got no idea where the others are... As much as I don't want to admit it, I think that Robotnik has won this time...

Simply too tired to jump again, Sonic went to one knee to rest for a second. That turned out to be a mistake. A stun bolt hit him square in the chest. Sonic screamed as the voltage of the blast seared across his already wracked body. Then another one struck him in the back...another in the leg...and then he just lost track of where he was hit. It was like a white-hot blanket of burning pain all over his body. He cried his agony out to the sky. Finally, the world went black, as he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

**On another part of the battlefield…**

Unable to fight back the masses of soldiers, Tails twisted up his tails and took to the air. The downdraft blasted back a few soldiers, which would give him a little breathing room as he flew into the sky. He was hoping that by flying up he might find his friends on the battlefield and pull them out.

But within two seconds of making it into the sky, a robot jet fighter streaked right towards him. The laser guns on the craft spit out a hail fire of lasers, making the air around Tails feel like a fireworks display. The fox twisted and turned all about, avoiding the shining bolts, and he was successful. However, the draft from the jet streaking by blasted him back several feet. The distraction caused him to stop spinning his tails, and he fell towards the ground.

At the last second though, Tails managed to curl them back together and soared into the sky once more. That turned out to be a big mistake. Another jet fighter targeted him and unleashed more laser fire. He scrambled to get out of the way, this time managing to avoid both the bolts and stay on course from the back draft.

The fox realized this plan of rescuing his friends wasn't going to work. If he took to the air, Robotnik's fighters would chase after him, and he was clearly no match for them without his own plane to fight back with.

_If only I had the Tornado 2 here..._

Three jet fighters targeted him at the same time, each approaching from a different direction. The fox ascended into the air, hoping he could elude them, but they blew right on past. The gusts of wind were so intense he felt like he was trapped in a hurricane. He pin wheeled towards the ground, spinning out of control.

Somehow, someway, he once again managed to get his tails spinning again, and got back into the air. That last flyby had taken a lot out of him though, as he tried to catch his breath. In the distance, a fighter approached once again. Tails gritted his teeth, steeling himself to dodge the next attack. But this time, instead of laser fire, a white plume of smoke streaked away from the craft straight towards Tails.

_Oh no! A missile! Please...not now! _

Tails tried to avoid it, but he was simply too exhausted to do any more quick maneuvers. The missile easily corrected its course to keep up with him. Before the rocket hit, the front popped out, sending a huge net flying out that was at least twenty feet in diameter. The net easily encircled and trapped tails, and now the fox was made totally immobile by the ropes. Tails then discovered that Robotnik had put another extra little surprise in his net missile, in the form of electric coils. Tails screamed as the electricity surged through his body.

Through the pain, he was dimly aware of a parachute popping out of the back of the missile, allowing him to slowly drift towards the ground. His last sensation before the world went black was cold metal hands grabbing at his net.

**Elsewhere in the war zone...**

Knuckles' fist passed straight through two robots, causing them to short out and power down. Just as he jerked his arm out of their destroyed bodies, another four rushed at him. He ripped the arm off of one of the first two robots, and spun around in a circle. The arm connected with the heads of all four enemies, knocking them clean off. Knuckles took a look at his makeshift club, and saw that it was much too bent out of shape to be used as a melee weapon anymore. He tossed it aside, as he prepared to face the next horde of enemies.

Instead of footsteps, he was greeted with the sound of rumbling treads. Several gaps appeared in the approaching robotic soldiers, as five large tanks appeared into view. All of them pointed their guns at Knuckles, but did not fire. Instead, more soldiers rushed in to attack. The echidna smirked, as he charged headlong at them.

From behind, he heard a boom. A half second later, an explosion ripped through the air right behind him. The world went topsy-turvy, as Knuckles was sent flying into the air head over heels. A boulder in the field broke his fall, as he crashed into it face first. He then slipped off the rock and fell on his back to the ground. A tremendous pain coursed through his head, as blood poured down his face. When Knuckles opened his eyes, the sky over his head blurred. Still, the stubborn echidna refused to give up.

_I've had worse..._

Grunting, he staggered to his feet, looking at the robotic soldiers that were approaching him. With a shout, he tossed himself at them.

There was another cannon shot, and he was blasted into the air along with pieces of the robot soldiers that were about to get him.

_The soldiers... They were just decoys...to distract me from the real threat._

The world spun all around him again, as gravity took over and brought him back down to the ground on his back. The echidna grunted in pain, as he managed to get up on one arm. Then he realized he was just too exhausted to move, and fell back to the ground.

He looked up at the dark, unforgiving sky overhead, as he continued to press himself to get up again. It was no use. Robotic soldiers moved to form a circle all around him, so that their heads with their glowing eyes blocked out the sky. As one, they all raised their stun guns, and fired. Knuckles had never felt such a pain in his entire life, and he wasn't even strong enough to scream it out. The only condolence was that he didn't feel it for long, as he went unconscious quickly.

**In the remaining corner of the field...**

Nail limply leaned against a rock, as he squeezed the trigger of his sniper rifle. The gun kicked into his shoulder, sending a bullet flying straight through five robot soldiers in a row. It wasn't by his skill though, but rather because the battlefield was so full of enemies that he'd hit something no matter where he fired. Nail tried to ignore the pain of the revolver bullet lodged in his leg as he scooted to the side to take cover behind another rock. Nail ejected the empty magazine, and reached into his belt for the next clip. There wasn't one there.

The fox looked again, and sure enough he realized he'd used up the last of his ammo for his rifle. Sighing, Nail tossed aside the rifle, and reached for another spot on his belt. This time he pulled out four pineapple grenades. He held them out towards Redrum, who was sitting on the ground near him, still just half a body.

"Pull out the pins," Nail said.

"But you know we're not gonna win," Redrum said back.

"Just do it," Nail grumbled. "If we're gonna get captured or killed, we might as well go down fighting."

"Fine...makes no difference anyway," the dog said back, as he yanked out the pins on all four grenades at once.

Nail stepped back out to face the approaching horde of soldiers. He threw the grenades into the air, and they landed at various places in the crowd. Explosions sent robots and robot parts into the air. It only delayed the approach for several seconds though; yet another wave came out of the smoke and marched towards them.

Still not willing to stop, Nail pulled out his handgun and flicked off the safety. The fox leaned out from behind cover, and squeezed the trigger so rapidly that his finger was like a jackhammer. The twelve-shot magazine emptied out in less than three secons. However, through the gun smoke, Nail could see that his handgun bullets hadn't made much of a difference. Five of the soldiers had gone down, but that was about it. It looked like his pistol bullets didn't have much of an effect...

Regardless, Nail ducked back, ejected the empty magazine, and slammed home a new clip. He fired off all twelve shots at the crowd again, with about the same results as the last attack. Then he reloaded and fired through yet another clip. Again, it hardly made any difference in halting the advance. By this time the soldiers were nearly upon their hiding spot.

"Well...that's it..." Nail said, letting the empty handgun slip from his fingers. "I'm out of ammo. But...I'm still not stopping."

Nail picked up the rifle, and held it by the grip towards the front of the gun. He brandished the weapon like a baseball bat. As the first guard stepped around the rock, Nail clubbed him in the head with the butt of his gun, disorienting the bot's programming. However, three more robots stepped in. Nail managed to hit the first one in the chest with his gun, but the other two zapped him with stun bolts.

The fox shouted as he fell down to the ground. At the same time, Nail saw Redrum get zapped with his own stun bolt, and he shorted out. The fox tried to get up to help, but he could hardly lift his own hand, and quickly slipped into unconsciousness...


	20. Chapter 19: All in the Same Boat

**Chapter 19: All in the Same Boat **

**September 4th, 2316 – 3:40 AM – Robotropolis, Robotnik Empire **

Slowly, but surely, Tails began to regain consciousness. He felt himself sleeping against something, and it definitely wasn't a bed. A cold, hard, slimy feeling ran all up and down the side of his body pressing against it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what that was, but he started to open his eyes anyway. Slowly, his surroundings came into focus. At first, all he saw was nothing but black, but then he began to make out details as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He saw a pipe...a puddle of murky water...a metal bar...

As he began to sit up, he realized he had been sleeping on a cold, wet concrete floor, with puddles scattered all around. Water continually dripped from the ceiling, feeding the small pools. Tails internally gagged and started rubbing the side of his body that had been against the floor, trying to get the cold, slimy feeling to go away. As he did that, the fox began glancing around his cell.

The walls were made of dirty concrete, with fungus and mold growing in through the cracks. Exposed pipes lined the ceiling, while a single naked light bulb sticking out of an outlet on the wall provided the only light. Set off to one side was a series of metal bars. They didn't look very sturdy. However, every so often a blue flicker of electricity passed over them, indicating they were electrified. Tails instinctively backed to the other side of the cell away from them...and then he felt himself step on something soft and furry.

"Ow!" the furry thing gasped out. Tails looked down, and saw that he'd stepped on Knuckles' arm.

The room had been so dark that he hadn't seen the echidna. Tails leaned down next to him, as Knuckle started to sit up and cradle his arm.

"Sorry Knuckles," Tails apologized.

"Err...ow... It's okay Tails," he mumbled, rubbing where Tails had stepped on the limb. He took a quick glance around. "Where are we?"

"Oh come on Knuckles," the fox said, rolling his eyes. "Where else would Robotnik take us after he's captured us? Robotropolis!"

"Yeah...I guess it was a stupid question. Is there anyone else in here besides us?"

"Yep..." someone said behind him.

Off in the corner, they saw Nail sitting against a wall. He was covered with a few small scrapes and bruises, and his T-shirt was ripped. However, Tails noticed this was because he'd torn up his shirt to make a makeshift bandage for his leg. Blood seeped through the blue cloth, darkening it to a crimson color.

The half-of-a-robot dog that had been with him was also sitting in the corner, but he must have been turned off or lost power since his eyes weren't glowing.

"You again?" Tails said.

"Yeah..." he snorted, turning to look at the wall.

Knuckles laughed a bit, and started to climb up on his shoulder.

"Wow! It would be totally awesome to kidnap Sonic and his friends for money!" Knuckles said sarcastically, trying to imitate Nail's voice as best as he could. "Oh no! There wasn't any money after all! Now we have to rot in the same jail cell as the people we kidnapped! Boo hoo!"

Nail rolled his eyes and looked at Knuckles. "No shit Sherlock. Thanks for stating the goddamn obvious."

Knuckles smiled a bit, apparently thinking he'd gotten under Nail's skin a bit.

"Now look what going against your own blood has gotten you."

Nail turned back to look at Knuckles.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your little sis Carrie. Do you have any idea how much pain you've caused her? And how much more she'll hate you once this is all over? Now it looks like you're finally getting to pay for it by having to suffer the same fate as us."

Nail hardened his gaze. Knuckles grinned, knowing that he'd hit a soft spot. He continued to speak.

"Why am I even talking to you about this? I bet you don't love her since you were still trying to capture us, so I bet you don't care what happens to her anyway. I bet you'd have kidnapped her too if you were paid to do it."

"Shut your stinking mouth, you son of a bitch," Nail growled, showing his sharp teeth. "You need to stop talking shit about things you don't know about."

"Oooh…struck a nerve, did I?" Knuckles teased.

Nail bared his fangs, as he jumped to his feet and rushed Knuckles. He did it with a surprising agility for someone who had such a bad wound on his leg.

"I still love her you goddamn asshole!" Nail screamed, aiming a fist at Knuckles' face.

Knuckles grinned as he held up a hand to block. However, the smile faded as Knuckles winced in pain from his wounds, and he stopped raising his arm. Nail's punch cleanly connected on Knuckles' face, causing a stream of blood to escape his mouth. Despite being much more injured than Nail though, Knuckles was still no softie. He used his other arm to throw a punch, and his fist caused the fox to bounce backwards like a rubber ball. Nail landed with a splash in one of the murky puddles on the floor.

Nail scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, while Knuckles got up slow, apparently trying to minimize his aches. Fueled by the demons of rage, the fox plunged a fist into Knuckles' chest as the echidna was standing up. That sent Knuckles colliding into the wall at the back of the cell. Knuckles responded by pushing off the wall and socking Nail clean in the head. That sent the vulpine back down to the floor, into another puddle of water.

While Knuckles advanced towards Nail, the fox struggled to drag himself up off of the floor again. Tails saw his chance to stop the fight, and moved to stand between the two of them. It wasn't easy though with all the burns the electric net had given him. He just managed to do it anyway though.

"Stop it! Both of you!" he shouted. "This isn't helping anything!"

Nail and Knuckles thrashed to get past Tails for a moment, but then they both started to calm down. Finally, Knuckles gave a little 'hmph' and moved to sit against a wall with his eyes closed, while Nail did the same.

"Good," Tails said. "Now…let's just calm down, all right? We're in Robtonik's clutches, so now's not the best time to go hurting each other even more than we are already."

Nail glared at Tails, and then at Knuckles. "...Fine," he spat out, before he resumed staring at the wall.

Knuckles merely grunted in confirmation, not even bothering to open his eyes.

Tails inwardly sighed at his cellmates. They had to think of a way to escape this place before Robotnik tossed them into the roboticizers. That was going to be tricky though when one of his cellmates was turned off, and the other two would rather kill each other than help each other.

_Wait... There's only four of us in here? There were seven of us back at that field! What happened to Nack, Canma...and oh no!_

"Where's Sonic?" Tails asked.

Knuckles snapped his eyes open and stared at Tails, before taking a quick look around the cell. Meanwhile, Nail just continued to sit against the cell wall, not bothering to respond in any way.

"I never realized he wasn't here until now..." Knuckles said. "You think he's in the next cell over?"

"Maybe..." Tails said, as he got as close to the electrified bars as he could without being shocked.

"Sonic!" Tails cried out. His voice echoed back to him down the hall. The fox waited a few seconds, but there was no reply apart from his own voice bouncing back to him. He decided to try again. "Sonic!"

Again, the echoes were the only answer he got. Now Tails was starting to get a little worried. He tried it again, and this time the echoes sounded even more desperate. Tails found himself even more anxious than before.

"I guess he's not here..." Knuckles said.

"And whatever reason he's not here, it's not good," Tails said.

Tails cast his eyes over to Nail, who was still sitting against the wall with his arms folded. Tails didn't know if Nail knew anything more about Robotnik's plans than they did, but he figured it was worth a try to ask him since he was one of the people who'd gotten the mission in the first place to capture them.

"Nail?" Tails asked.

"What do you want?" Nail shot back, sounding very harsh in his delivery. He didn't even bother to look at Tails or open his eyes.

"Um..." the other fox started. "How much did you know about the job that Robotnik gave to you?"

Nail let out a sigh, before opening his eyes to look at the younger fox.

"Well...since we're all in the same boat anyway and the mission was just a hoax, why not tell you?" he replied. "On Merc Net...we were told that Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles would all be at the Grakoran Tournament for a few days. All we had to do was capture you and deliver you alive to that field we were fighting in before, and then we get paid. The client was a pig calling himself Kenny Oviron. Obviously, it was just an alias and the money was never real."

"Were you told anything else?" Knuckles asked.

"Nope...that was it. The job details were pretty vague, yes, but the money was so good that me and Redrum didn't really care. Now though I know why we weren't told a lot when we signed on."

Tails frowned, looking down at the floor. He hadn't expected any useful info from Nail, and that's about what he got. Oh well, it was worth a shot. However, a question just crossed his mind.

"How'd Robotnik know we'd be at the tournament?" Tails asked.

Before Nail could open his mouth, someone else answered for him.

"Because I bought the tickets."

Tails recognized the voice in an instant, and turned around to look towards the cell bars. A large dark shadow crossed through the darkness on the other side. Since there was no light outside the cells, the shadows mostly covered his body. However, the occasional flicker of the electricity in the bars illuminated his face, showing it was Robotnik. A most sinister grin was plastered across his face.

"President Rudot never gave you those tickets as a reward," Robotnik said, speaking again. "I'm the one who did it. It was to draw all of you out into one place, to make it easy for my bounty hunters to capture you. Did you enjoy your vacation?"

Knuckles and Tails cast hard glares at Robotnik, and didn't say anything.

"You didn't like it?" Robotnik said, with sarcastic shock. He clasped his hands together. "But I paid so much money for them! It's so...horrible they went to waste!"

He buried his head into his hands and mock cried.

"Cut the crap Robotnik!" Knuckles screamed. "Why'd you send all these little bounty hunters after us anyway?"

Putting his hands down again, Robotnik smiled.

"Well...since most of my robots never seem to do any good in stopping you, I figured I might try something new this time to capture you. So..." He pointed at Nail. "I rounded up a few scoundrels like him to do my bidding, and I have to wonder why I didn't come up with this idea sooner."

Robotnik smiled at Nail.

"You did a fine job, Mr. Strafer."

Nail frowned at him, before he looked the other way and stuck out the middle finger on his left hand at Robotnik.

"Fine fine..." Robotnik said with a smile. "Ignore my praise if you like. It's not like I really need you anymore. Well...except for one last thing..."

"What's that?" Nail asked, staring at the wall.

"You'll find out soon. Oh, Tails and Knuckles. You get to join in too. But for now, I want all of you to rest. See you tomorrow, Heh heh..."

He walked out of sight of the bars, and then there was the slam of a closing metal door. About two seconds after that, a low hissing sound filled the air. Tails didn't need to guess to know what that was. He pulled out his oxygen bottle. Unfortunately, he'd used up all the oxygen trying to keep Nack's gas from knocking him out earlier. It looked like Knuckles had the same result with his bottle. The echidna let out a sigh, as he let the bottle fall from his hand and bounce across the floor.

"Great..."

The familiar _Sconocea _gas seeped into the room through vents, quickly filling the entire space. Tails tried to resist going to sleep, but it was no use. He was out in less than a minute.

**One day later…**

As Tails started to wake up again, he noticed something odd. He didn't feel himself sleeping against the wet concrete floor of his jail cell this time, but instead against smooth, polished metal. Opening his eyes, the fox realized he was inside a gigantic dome-shaped room. It felt familiar somehow. As his eyesight came into focus, it finally hit him.

This was the Robot Generator room, and it looked very much the same as the last time Tails had been here. There were only two differences. The Robot Generator was gone, which wasn't a surprise. It had collapsed to pieces while they were here. The second difference was the cracks in the floor left behind when the generator came crashing down and left holes in the floor. They hadn't been repaired.

A few months ago, Robotnik sent Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles on a mission to stop the Robot Generator to this very room before it exploded. At least, that was the mission, until it turned out to be nothing but a trap to get Sonic into Robotropolis. Before they realized what was happening, Robotnik had scanned Sonic's life data and raised Metal Sonic...

Tails blinked.

_I just had a terrible thought... What if Robotnik has—_

Tails was interrupted by a groan off to the side. He looked, and saw that Knuckles was lying on the floor with him. The echidna had a bandage over the wound on his head, and more bandages around his arms. Instinctively, Tails looked down and noticed that he'd received bandages covering his cuts and everything as well. Knuckles stirred again, and mumbled a bit more in his sleep. Tails crouched down next to him to wake him up, but the echidna's eyes were already starting to open.

"Hey Knuckles," Tails said. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Err...fine, I guess," he replied. Knuckles got into a sitting position, and stretched as he yawned. "I feel like I was never in that battle that we were in."

He brushed his hand across his forehead, and felt the bandage. His eyes widened open.

"What? What's this?" he asked.

"It looks like…" Tails started. "Robotnik fixed our injuries. What's going on? Why would he do this for us?"

"I dunno Tails," Knuckles said, as he stood up. He started to stretch his arms and do some punches. "But I feel great. It feels like I was never in that fight yesterday.

"Me too," Tails said, standing up. "But, while it's good that we've been healed, I don't think now's the time to celebrate. We're still in Robotnik's hands, and we've got no idea what's going on. I don't think he'd heal us just to be nice, but because of something that he's planning."

"You think?" Knuckles asked. "I can't think of any evil reason he'd wanna heal us..."

Suddenly, a loud whirring sound in the ceiling of the room interrupted him. Tails looked up, and saw a sight he wished he would never see again.

A glowing purple sphere descended through a door opening in the top of the dome, and inside the sphere he could see the outline of a hedgehog robot. And it was starting to move... It was the Metal Sonic incident all over again, only this time Metal Sonic looked even deadlier than ever before. As the sphere came downwards more it faded slowly, and Tails could examine the robot in detail.

The blue robot looked to be about one and a half times bigger than the original Metal Sonic, which allowed more room for a larger jet engine in its back. Several long spikes extended from the head. White streaks ran down each spike, in addition to the armor covering his arms and legs. The metallic armor sparkled in the fluourescent like it was made of diamond. Claws extended out of both the hands as well as the feet, and each one of them looked to be at least a foot long. A black cape ruffled around behind the robot as he descended to the floor, extending out from black shoulder pads covering the upper arms. The eyes glowed an eerie red, like hot coals. Overall, the machine looked even more evil than the first Metal Sonic had been.

"Tails and Knuckles, meet Metal Sonic version 2.0!" Robotnik's voice said, booming out over a loud speaker.

Tails closed his eyes, trying to erase from his memory what he'd just saw, but it was no use. His fears had been confirmed. Metal Sonic was back once again, looking stronger than ever, and this time Robotnik had him and all of his friends under his thumb. How were they ever going to stop the mad doctor from conquering the world now?


	21. Chapter 20: A Monster Reborn

**Chapter 20: A Monster Reborn **

**September 5th, 2316 – 4:50 AM – Robotropolis, Robotnik Empire**

Tails tried desperately to think of a way to get out of this situation, as he stared at Metal Sonic, but he just couldn't think of anything. He felt like he was staring at an executioner's axe, one that was about to slice right through his neck. They were locked in a room with Robotnik's deadliest invention yet, with no way to escape its wrath. Robotnik began to start babbling again.

"I'm sure you two remember the promise I made to you a while back, don't you?"

Tails and Knuckles looked at each other, slightly confused. When he didn't get a response, Robotnik spoke up again.

"After you destroyed the first Metal Sonic, I swore to all of you that I would create another Metal Sonic. That time has finally come, now that I have copied Sonic's life data again! That's why he was missing from your cell. The new Metal Sonic is stronger, faster... And at the same time Tails, he is immune to the good side of Sonic's life data. There will be no messing with his programming this time, little fox boy! You'll have to think of another way to defeat him!"

Tails clenched his fist, feeling like screaming out his rage at the doctor.

"Now, if I wanted to, I could send out Metal Sonic right now to destroy Planet Freedom, but I want to have some fun first. I'm sure you noticed I allowed my new medical bots to heal you up, haven't you?"

Tails felt his fingers trace across his bandages.

"That wasn't because I suddenly had a change of heart about you! The only reason I've treated your injuries is so you'd be in tiptop shape to fight Metal Sonic, thus the fight would last longer and thus you'd provide me with more entertainment. As a bonus, once you, my last obstacle, have been eliminated, there will be nobody left to stop me from taking over the world!"

"You are a sick sick bastard Robotnik!" Knuckles shouted.

"Flattery won't get you out of this fight, you stupid echidna!" Robotnik said back. "Now, please don't die too early! I want this to be as enjoyable as possible! And now Metal, kill these two runts!"

Metal Sonic wasted no time in getting the fight started. One second he was standing the middle of the room, and the next second he was standing right next to Knuckles. Before the echidna could even pull an arm back for a punch, Metal Sonic had already kneed him in the chest and sent him crashing into a wall.

Tails moved over to help Knuckles, but one second later Metal Sonic was standing between him and the echidna. The robot moved so fast it was almost like he was teleporting. Tails spun around to whack him with his tails, but the robot easily caught his appendages in mid swing. Metal Sonic then followed up by swinging him up into the air by his tails and slamming him down headfirst into the metal floor.

The fox screamed, after his jaw bounced off of the ground. He clutched to soothe the pain, but it did little good. After Tails stood up he looked around in all directions, trying to spot Metal again... And suddenly the robot was right in his face. Before Tails could react at all, a metal fist slammed into his stomach. The fox's stomach crumpled in like it was made of nothing more than rubber, and the force sent him flying backwards a good twenty feet. He crashed down to the floor hard, as he moaned out his pain.

"Is that the best you can do?" Robotnik called out from his loudspeaker. "I thought you were the saviors of Planet Freedom!"

Tails allowed his anger to push himself harder to get to his feet. Off to the side, he saw Knuckles throwing a punch at Metal, but the robot easily blocked his punch with one hand, before punching him across the face with his other hand. Tails steeled himself, feeling that Metal was going to come over to him next.

Suddenly, a burst of inspiration struck the fox. Even as Knuckles fell to the ground, Tails swung his tails around. Metal "teleported" over to the fox at the same time, but he was just in time to catch the blow from the tails right in his face.

It was just too bad for Tails that his attack had almost no effect at all. Metal's head twisted to the side a bit from the impact, but it quickly snapped back into place. Before Tails could try anything else, the robot extended his claws, and raked them across the young kit's chest at lightning speed. The claws cut hard across his flesh, bringing up blood and soaking his fur wet.

"AAAH!" Tails screamed, wrapping his hands over the new wounds.

And then Metal was gone again, but this time Tails saw him teleport to the center of the room. Robotnik came onto the loudspeaker again.

"Nice try Tails, but overall I'm quite disappointed in both of you! You're losing so easily!"

Tails and Knuckles both glared at the nearest camera.

"Well don't just stare at me like that! Give it another go! I want nothing short of your best performance!"

Metal got moving once again, only this time he went into a spin-dash. His spikes tore up the metal floor as easily as if it were made of paper. Fortunately for the pair though, that slowed him down a tiny bit. It wasn't much, but it gave them enough time to get out of the way. The blue blur of metal blasted across the floor in a straight line towards the wall. However, rather than stop, it plowed its way vertically upwards the vertical surface. The room was basically a gigantic dome, so Metal was getting high above them very quickly.

Metal then jumped off of the wall and flew down towards them as fast as a cannon shot. Tails leaped to the side, but he was too slow. The impact with the floor sent parts of it cracking up and down, like an earthquake. At the same time, a shockwave blasted him backwards. He skidded across the floor...straight over the lip of one of the large cracks in the floor.

Tails felt himself falling downward far below, into the inky blackness, when a strong hand grabbed him by the wrist. The fox looked up to see Knuckles standing there.

"Hold on! I'll pull you u--!"

Knuckles was cut off when Metal shoved him from behind, sending the two friends falling down into the darkness. Tails' eyes widened in fright, as the thick darkness below rushed up to meet them.

With a sudden jerk though, they stopped falling. Tails looked up to see Knuckles keeping them both from falling by digging one of his fists into one side of the chasm. They were about twenty feet below the lip of the gap.

"Tails!" Knuckles barked. "Fly us out of here!"

"Got it!" he shouted.

He began to wrap up his tails...when he heard Metal's jet engine above them. He was coming down inside the crack to finish the job. Grunting, Tails hurriedly started to fly them upwards. He felt tired from the fighting, so this was no little feat for him. The fox looked up, and saw Metal descending downwards at a frightening rate. He jerked to the side, and the robot swept past them. As fast as he could, Tails laid on the speed and they were now back up in the room.

"Tails!" Knuckles screamed. "Below us! Look out!"

Metal smashed dead on into the two of them from underneath. Knuckles and Tails flew through the air in opposite directions, before smashing back down to the metal floor. The fox shook his head, and looked up to see the mechanical beast hovering menacingly overhead.

"You two are just no fun at all!" Robotnik boomed out. "You're boring me! Metal's got you totally on the ropes! Oh well, I suppose that's my fault. I did my work all too well! What would you say if I did something to change things up?"

Tails' eyes widened in fear. He wondered what Robotnik was about to do now. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be good... With a hiss, a metal door opened up on one side of the arena. Tails turned around to see who was entering.

It was Nail and Redrum, being pushed into the room by a troop of robot soldiers. Nail now had a proper bandage over his leg, instead of the one he'd made out of his T-shirt. Redrum had also been repaired, with the scrapes bended back out and painted over. He had even received a new pair of legs.

Behind them, the soldiers tossed in a sniper rifle, a handgun, a knife, a box of grenades, and a box of ammo. It was all of the weapons Nail had before, only it looked like Robotnik had refilled his ammo stock. The robots quickly slammed the door closed behind, before Nail or Redrum could try to fight their way out.

It was amazing how much Tails' view of them had changed in the past few minutes. They'd gone from being the last people on Planet Freedom he wanted to share a jail cell with to the people he would need to work with in order to survive this fight. Nail turned to look at Tails.

"Robotnik told us what was going on before he let us into the room," Nail said, sounding frightened.

"Is it true?" Redrum asked. "Is Metal Sonic back?"

"Look over there," Tails answered, pointing a finger at the robot.

Nail's eyes visibly widened in terror. "No way...he wants us to fight him? He was able to destroy entire cities on his own!"

"That was the old Metal Sonic," Robotnik said over the loudspeaker. "This one is even stronger!"

"Damn!" Redrum cursed. "He'll make mincemeat out of us!"

"You know, I do think this fight is a tad unfair..." Robotnik said.

"No shit man," Nail said.

"Four on one I'd say just won't do... So I'm going to send in Sonic himself to back up Metal!"

A door opened on the opposite side of the arena, and a second blue hedgehog robot entered the room. This one resembled the old Metal Sonic, with its similar size and design. The main differences looked to be longer spines, and green eyes. While he was smaller than Metal Sonic, Tails felt himself even more frightened of him.

"No!" Tails said, tears streaming from his eyes. "Not Sonic... No..."

_No... No no no! Not my big bro! This isn't real...please let it just be a nightmare... Let me wake up!_

"That's the lowest move ever, Robotnik!" Knuckles said. "Forcing Sonic to fight for the wrong side!"

"I know," Robotnik said, cackling. "That's exactly why I roboticized him. Anyway, since you've not been much fun and I want to hurry up and get on with taking over the world, I've decided to just end this now. Metal! Sonic! Destroy all of them!"

While Sonic went after Redrum and Nail, Metal decided to attack Tails and Knuckles again. This time though...it was different. Tails' sadness and anger had given him a strength he didn't know he had, and he was now expressing this emotion through his fighting. His eyes were practically sparking with rage.

_That Robotnik... I'm going to make him regret ever did this to Sonic! I'm going to smash Metal into tiny pieces!_

As Metal Sonic "teleported" over to Tails, he flicked his tails around much faster than he had before, aiming for his head. He actually managed to force Metal's head to spin all the way around before it locked back into place.

While it would have been lethal for a living person, apparently it wasn't so for Metal. The robot easily recovered as he swung a hand out towards Tails, the claws extended out to their full length. This time though, Tails saw the claws coming, and ducked underneath them.

The fox counter attacked by revving up a spin dash. Tails flew towards Metal as a ball of orange fur, and smashed straight into him. One of Metal's eyes actually cracked a little, and he was pushed back some by the collision. Tails bounced backwards after the hit, and landed on his feet.

Metal gave Tails no time to rest, as he went into a spin dash that ripped up the floor like it was made of no more than soft mud. The fox only just barely sidestepped the move, getting a gash across his back from one of the stray spines. Tails winced in pain, as he reached over to hold a hand to his wound.

Luckily for him though, by this time Metal switched opponents to fight Knuckles. Tails watched for a moment, as he saw the echidna take on the robot. He appeared to be feeling just as vengeful as Tails, with how much more effective his attacks had gotten. Knuckles actually managed to deflect Metal away from him by punching the robot as he rolled past. Metal smashed into a wall, although he was back on his feet very quickly.

Knuckles didn't give him any chance to launch an attack though, as he sped over to the robot and launched into a dizzying array of lightning-fast punches. His fists looked as if they were tiny white comets, as they bashed up Metal's body. The robot was pounded back into the wall for about a foot, until Knuckles was kicked backwards when Metal brought up his leg. He skidded across the floor for about ten feet, before jumping back up.

Knuckles breathed heavily, as sweat rolled down his face. Tails wasn't exactly great too, with the cuts Metal had inflicted on him. Despite their stepping up the game, Metal appeared to be hardly damaged at all. He just had too much endurance and durability on his side.

_What're we gonna do? We're giving it our best, and he's hardly got any scratches on him! Plus, he's a robot, so he's got a tougher body and he can't feel any pain! I just don't see how we're going to win..._

**A couple minutes earlier...**

"Metal! Sonic! Destroy all of them!" Robotnik shouted, his voice reverberating throughout the room.

The sound was so loud that Redrum might have thought his voice was that of a god. Nail didn't let it distract him though, as he quickly snatched up his sniper rifle and squeezed off a shot.

Apart from a shower of sparks where the bullet collided with the metal, there didn't seem to be any effect.

"Shit..." Nail hissed.

He fired again, and got the same result as before.

_It looks like Robot Sonic is bulletproof. Fan-freaking-tastic._

Before he could fire again, Sonic got moving. He was moving so fast it was like he was warping from place to place. Sonic decided to reappear right in front of Nail. Gasping, Nail held up his rifle in both hands to block any attacks. However, it blocked Sonic about as effectively as wet spaghetti. The bot hedgehog launched into a spin kick into the fox's chest, which sent Nail flying backwards. He crashed to the metal floor so hard his breath was taken away.

While dragging himself to his feet, Sonic advanced on Redrum. The robotic dog snatched up the .45 handgun on the floor and opened fire. If there weren't sparks flying off where the bullets hit Sonic though, Nail wouldn't even know if Sonic was getting shot. He walked through the hail of bullets as easily as if it were nothing but a gentle rain. Then the robot dog clicked on empty. As he started to reload, Sonic wrapped one arm around the metal dog's neck, and threatened to crush it.

Nail wasn't about to let his friend die, as he squeezed off another shot, whacking Sonic in the head. Again, there didn't seem to be any visible effect apart from a shower of sparks. But luckily—or unluckily, depending upon how you looked at it—Sonic released Redrum and then turned his attention back to Nail.

Before Nail could even raise his gun, Sonic had already teleported back to him. Nail instinctively went for the knife in the holster on his shoulder, and stabbed with all his might towards Sonic's chest.

The blade broke into a thousand tiny metal shards as it made impact, leaving nothing behind but the hilt of the knife. Nail stared at the knife in total disbelief, before looking back to Sonic. The hedgehog robot extended his claws, and slashed them over Nail's chest. The claws were so thick they went all the way through his Kevlar vest and cut down to the skin. Nail grunted, his eyes popping open at the searing pain.

Nail clutched to his chest, trying to hold in some blood. For a moment though, he raised up his head again to look Sonic in the eye. The fox couldn't help but notice a metal collar around the robot's neck. Nail instinctively reached into his pocket. The remote control was still there… It looked like Robotnik hadn't confiscated it. He pulled out the device and eyed it for a split second, as he remembered something he said earlier.

_"If you do anything I don't want you to do, like try to break out of your cage, or run away, I press this button. While it won't kill you, you aren't going to feel like doing much of anything for a while. I just shocked you with the minimum charge. The pain will go away in a little bit, but the higher charges will have you roiling in agony for hours."_

A broad smile crossed Nail's face. If he had time, he would have danced, but this would have to do. With glee, Nail hammered down the button on the remote control.

Sonic lit up like a Christmas tree as electricity surged across his body. It was quite possibly the most stunning light show he'd ever seen in his life, and the most personally gratifying. After a few seconds, the voltage finally subsided, and Sonic dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. The robot lay still, not moving at all.

"We are some lucky bastards, aren't we Nail?" Redrum said to Nail, laughing.

"Oh yeah..." he said, grinning back.

"No!" Robotnik bellowed from the loudspeaker. "That's not supposed to happen!"

That sent Nail and Redrum laughing again. Nail turned to face the nearest camera, and gave it the middle finger with both hands.

"Up yours, egghead!"

"Fine little children; have fun being so immature and vulgar while you can," Robotnik said, sounding frustrated. "You just got lucky because of a technical malfunction. Metal Sonic will just have to finish you off instead, after he's done dealing with Tails and Knuckles."

The moment of celebration was blown as the two of them turned to face Tails and Knuckles fighting with Metal Sonic. Both of them looked like they were about ready to give up, with how battered the looked. Multiple slash wounds covered all parts of Tails' and Knuckles' bodies, as well as dark bruises. The four of them still weren't out of this mess yet…

"Nail!" Redrum suddenly shouted.

Nail turned back to face the robot dog.

"What if we got the collar around Metal too?" he said, continuing to speak.

Nail stared at him like he was crazy for a second, but then he nodded in agreement.

"It's risky," Redrum said. "But it's the only way I can see for us to get out of this alive."

Nail turned to face the still form of Sonic, and pressed the button on his remote that would switch off the collar.

"Get the collar," Nail said. "I'll go help Tails and Knuckles."

Redrum nodded, and dashed for the body. Meanwhile, Nail ran over towards Tails and Knuckles. Redrum caught up fairly quickly though.

"What now?" he asked, as they ran side by side.

"When we get close, pass the collar to Knuckles," Nail said. "I know he's got fast hands because of his punching, so he can slip the collar around Metal's neck the easiest. Then we all try to distract him, and I fry the sucker once that thing's around his neck."

"Got it."

Fortunately, Redrum didn't have to run far, as one of Knuckles' attacks knocked the echidna at his feet. Weakly, Knuckles opened his eyes.

"You..." he gasped, sitting up.

"No time to talk!" Redrum shouted, shoving the collar in Knuckles' hands. "Put this on Metal as fast as you can! Then we can zap him just like we did Sonic!"

"So that's what did it..." Knuckles said, while he climbed to his feet. "How's that work though?"

"Long story. Just get it on him as soon as you can! We'll distract him!"

"Uh...sure!" Knuckles hurriedly answered, jumping up to his feet.

There was no time for questions. In the meantime, Nail ran over to join Tails, who was in the middle of fighting Metal Sonic. Tails had only just managed to jump out of the way of another one of the robot's spin dashes, when Nail dashed over.

"Hey...my fellow vulpine," Nail said, to the much smaller Tails.

"What do you need!" Tails shouted.

"We've got an idea to take down Metal."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! All we gotta do is keep him distracted long enough for Knuckles to put a special surprise around his neck..."

"Was it that thing that zapped Sonic?"

"Yep...exactly. Now let's get to drawing him away."

Nail turned to face Metal, and cupped his hands over his mouth.

"Hey...you big stupid robot!" the older fox called out, as loudly as possible. "Come get us! It's fox season!"

Metal Sonic took the bait. He decided to teleport over to Nail first. He tried to whack Metal on the head with his rifle's stock, but the robot intercepted the attack easily by grabbing the gun. The robot then pulled the gun from Nail's hand and tossed it aside. Before the fox could get away, Metal kicked him in the stomach, shoving him backwards.

However, that gave enough time for Tails to get behind Metal and kick him from behind. The robot stumbled forward a few steps, before whirling around in a circle with its arms spread out, knocking the other fox back as well. Nail gulped, as the robot turned around to face him again

_Oh boy...now it's my turn again._

However, before Metal could attack, Redrum charged him as he pulled out a grenade and yanked off the pin. The robot dog tossed it at the robot...but even as he threw it Metal had already teleported to him. Thus, the explosion completely missed its intended target.

Metal tried to punch Redrum, but the metal hedgehog easily dodged the attack. Metal followed right up with a kick that sent the robot dog sprawling. He fell to the floor with a mighty crash. Metal strode over him, and lifted up one foot above his downed opponent's head. Nail's eyes widened in terror, but then Knuckles took advantage of the opportunity to clamp the collar on Metal's neck.

"I did it Nail!" he cried out. "Fry him!"

Nail didn't need to be told twice. He jammed the button down. An electrical surge swept across Metal's body. Redrum quickly rolled aside, watching the spectacle. Sparks flew out of the metal hedgehog's body like he was a fireworks display, lighting up the entire room in their glow. After a few moments, the sparks finally faded, and Metal crashed to the floor unconscious.


	22. Chapter 21: Unexpected Help

**Chapter 21: Unexpected Help **

**September 5th, 2316 – 5:20 AM – Robotropolis, Robotnik Empire**

Tails watched, as the robotic hedgehogs lay on the floor, lifeless. There was the tick of cooling metal, and acrid smoke rising from their bodies, but otherwise the room felt completely still. However, the fox didn't really feel like this was the end. Even though they won the fight, he had no idea what Robotnik had in store for them next. It could be anything... Regardless, he felt compelled to speak up.

"D...Did that do it?" Tails hesitantly asked. "Did we win?"

"No you haven't, you morons," Robotnik said. "This battle is far from finished. I don't know where you got that electric collar thing from, but all you managed to do was knock Metal and Sonic offline for a little while. They should be rebooting again any second now."

He was right. A humming sound filled the room, as Sonic got up on one knee. His green eyes winked a few times, before they started glowing intensely. Metal managed to start sitting up as well. Nail, Tails, Redrum, and Knuckles all started to slowly back away. By this time, both of the robot hedgehogs had gotten onto their feet again. Their engines whirred as they fired up again.

Meanwhile, Metal crushed the electric collar with one hard squeeze, and ripped it off of his neck. After he tossed the device aside, he began to slowly advance on the foursome, with Sonic coming up behind him.

_What does it take to bring them down? It's like we've never fought them at all! I can hardly tell we've done any damage to them!_

"No..." Tails cried. "It's not fair... I don't want it to end, not like this..."

"Metal! Sonic!" Robotnik shouted. "Crush them! Hold nothing back!"

**Inside Metal's head…**

Mecha Sonic personally did not care who he used to be up until about an hour ago. Nor did he care about the fact that two of the people he'd been ordered to slaughter were his best friends. He was to follow Robotnik's orders, and he was to follow them at any cost. To even think of going against his new master's wishes would be to violate his programming.

_Dammit! That's not true! I'm Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog! I'm supposed to be destroying Robotnik, not working for him!_

Even though Sonic had been roboticized, and his body was no longer under his control, his true thoughts rang out inside Mecha Sonic's head. The hedgehog's personality continued to struggle strongly to be heard. Too bad for Sonic though that Mecha was completely devoid of emotion or free will, and thus he could not get annoyed at all at Sonic's constant cries. Sonic may as well have been trying to reason with a brick wall.

Mecha quickly analyzed all four of the potential targets in the arena once again, to determine which one would be the best one to attack. His "brother" Metal Sonic was already occupied with Tails and Knuckles, leaving Nail and Redrum open. As Nail raised up his sniper rifle to fire, his threat level increased exponentially. Mecha determined that it would be best to eliminate him first due to this.

In less than a split second, Mecha selected his next attack and executed it. In this case, it was a spindash. He roared across the floor at tremendous speed, tearing up the floor behind him. Nail apparently had seen the attack coming, and was easily able to dodge. That did not concern Mecah though. He would simply turn around and try again.

Unfortunately, he had no room to slow down, and coming up ahead was the entrance doors leading into the room. The hedgehog smashed cleanly through one of the steel doors, blasting it right off of its frame. The collision finally brought him to a halt. He turned around to examine the damage, and saw that there was a perimeter breach in the fighting arena.

"Guys!" Knuckles shouted. "Sonic opened us up a way out of here! Let's go!"

_Yes! I accidentally destroyed the entrance door! That means those guys can escape! I just hope they can get out before I can kill them..._

Mecha jumped back into the room, preparing to target another enemy, when he received new orders:

_PREVENT PRISONERS FROM ESCAPING THE COMPLEX._

Mecha took up a position in front of the blasted open door, and held his arms out to bar the passageway. Knuckles, Tails, Redrum, and Nail all approached, but stood back a little when they realized Mecha blocked the way.

However, with a little smirk, Redrum pulled out a hand grenade, ripped off the pin, and tossed it towards Mecha Sonic. The grenade bounced across the floor a little, before it stopped at Mecha's feet. While the explosion did hardly any damage to his body, it did send him flying away from the door, which gave the four enemies enough time to sneak out into the hall.

_Nice going guys! Maybe if we're lucky, you damaged something on my new body so I can't chase you…_

Mecha was having no trouble at all getting up though. After a quick systems check, he determined that he'd only suffered minor damage to his armor, and all the vital parts inside him were still intact. The robotic hedgehog quickly climbed to his feet and zoomed through the door, while Metal had already gone on ahead.

Alarms blared out in the hallway, so loud that it was difficult to hear any other sound over them. Red lights flashed everywhere, bathing every hall in a haze of crimson. Meanwhile, a monotone computer voice issuing orders to Robotnik's soldiers via the PA system.

"Warning! Prisoners have escaped their designated compound in Sector 47-C! Find and detain the escapees immediately! Warning! Prisoners have escaped..."

The message continued to loop again and again, endlessly. Soldiers began to flood into the corridors, as they too joined the pursuit. Mecha paid them no mind though, as he rocketed right past them to keep up with the escaping prisoners. A few dozen meters on up ahead, Metal flew in front of him. He then received an update from Robotnik on the location of the fugitives. They were attempting to use the cargo elevator in the main shaft to reach a surface entrance.

The two hedgehog robots quickly altered their course to intercept them, ducking down another hallway. Within several seconds, they were in the elevator shaft. Mecha looked up, to see that the elevator was about to reach the top of the track. He could not allow them to get any farther away.

Engaging their jet engines, both Mecha and Metal flew up after the elevator. They reached the elevator platform quickly, and landed on top of it, much to looks of shocks from the four escapees.

"Damn! They caught up again!" Knuckles shouted, as he clutched to a deep cut across his chest.

"What're we gonna do?" Tails asked, his voice sounding weak. "I'm getting too tired to fight anymore..."

_C'mon guys! You can't give up now! You're my only hope to stop me from helping Robotnik take over the world! If you die here, there won't be anyone left to do it!_

Suddenly, a purple blur flew down from the ceiling, and landed in the middle of everybody. It was Canma Neuyan, the warrior that Sonic remembered capturing earlier.

_But what's she doing here? I thought she was our enemy!_

"All of you...stand back," she said, drawing her sword. "I'll hold them back long enough for you to escape."

"Canma? You're helping us?" Nail asked, bewildered by her appearance. "Why are you doing this?"

"There's no time to explain right now. I'll tell you later. For now, there is a battle to be fought."

With a war cry, she charged at Mecha with her sword held back. Mecha was caught a bit off guard by her speed, and so wasn't ready to avoid her sword slash. The blade moved so quickly that it was nothing but a silver blur of steel.

Surprisingly, the cut actually left a small dent in Mecha's armor, and he was pushed to the side by the force of the blow. It seemed her blade was of a stronger alloy than Nail's knife had been. However, it was negligible damage at best due to the toughness of his armor, so Mecha was able to quickly go on the counter attack. He teleported over to her and took a swing with his claws.

She swiftly dodged the attack, and then countered by kicking him from behind. Mecha nearly fell off of the platform, but he recovered in time. It seemed that while this vixen couldn't do much harm, she clearly had a maneuverability advantage over the previous four opponents, especially at close range.

Mecha did a quick calculation, and determined that while there was a 5 chance he would be defeated in one to one combat, there was only a 0.5 probability he and Metal would lose together. Despite her speed, they still had her outnumbered two to one.

While Canma was focusing on Mecha, Metal teleported behind her and grabbed her by the arms so that she couldn't attack. The purple vixen struggled to break free, but she just didn't have the raw strength to do it. Mecha extended his claws, and walked in close. He drew his arm back, as he prepared to stab deep into her chest. With a mighty thrust, Mecha plunged the spikes towards her heart.

She counter-attacked by jumping up off of her feet in Metal's arms, and kicking Mecha back with both feet before his claw reached her. Mecha fell back a few steps, but he quickly recovered. Before he could get back over to finish Canma off though, Knuckles stepped up behind Metal and delivered a hard punch to the back of his head. This forced Metal to release her. At the same time, Nail fired a gunshot into Mecha's chest, pushing him back even further. It seemed the others still had a little fight in them.

By this time, the elevator had reached the top of the shaft. They were now standing in front of a large open hangar door, giving them a view over Egg City, which surrounded the Robotropolis complex. It was barely visible, but a little sunlight was beginning to creep in through the gaps between the clouds and the Land of the Sky overhead.

As the two hedgehog robots resumed their attacks on the group, Mecha heard Tails cry out.

"Guys! Lure them over here!" he shouted.

Mecha saw Tails out of the corner of his eye, standing on a platform outside the hangar door, waving for the others to come to him. However, he paid it no mind as tried to spin kick Canma. He missed.

"What?" Knuckles yelled. "Why?"

"Just get it to where they're standing in the middle of this doorway! Hurry!"

"Well...okay!" Nail cried out.

The other four enemies moved to stand in the doorway. Metal and Mecha teleported over to resume the attack. It was then that Tails shouted something else.

"All right guys! Now jump towards the outside!"

Mecha saw Tails standing next to a control panel, as he hammered down a red button. All of a sudden, there was the sound of metal grinding against metal overhead. Mecha looked up to see that the hangar door coming down at a frightening rate. Before the hedgehog robot could move out of the way, the door had already crashed down on top of him. While Mecha's body hadn't been crushed, he was now pinned to the floor and could hardly move.

The only thing that hadn't gotten caught under the door was his head and his arms, which was poking towards the outside of the door. He looked around to see all five of the enemies were safe and sound. Meanwhile, Metal was also caught underneath the door, only his legs were visible instead of the head and legs.

"We did it!" Tails cried out. "They're trapped under the door!"

_Great work fellas! Now you can get out of here!_

However, Mecha wasn't done yet. He pressed the palms of his hands against the ground, and pushed up. The door began to squeal, as he slowly pushed it up, inch by inch. He was beginning to get free... Metal was doing the same thing on the other side.

_Hurry up and run, all of you! I'll be free again soon!_

"We gotta get out of here!" Nail shouted. He took off running down a catwalk to the left of the door, and was quickly out of sight. The other four followed after him.

A couple minutes later, Mecha and Metal finally pushed up the door enough to squeeze out from under. The two of them crawled out from underneath the massive door, until finally they were free and it slammed closed behind them.

Not a second later, one of Robotnik's transport planes rocketed away from the base. Several jet fighters were chasing after it. New orders were transmitted to the two hedgehog robots:

_PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING ON HIJACKED TRANSPORT PLANE. DESTROY THEIR ESCAPE VEHICLE._

Without a moment's hesitation, the two bots fired their engines and took to the air. They caught up with the transport within seconds, and blasted at full speed towards it. The two hedgehog robots resembled nothing so much as blue blurs. The transport plane did not try to dodge their attack as they both smashed straight through the engines on the wings of the plane.

The engines blew up in a spectacular fashion. Without power, the aircraft plunged down to the city below, and smashed into a derelict parking garage. A roaring fireball blasted up into the sky, visible for miles to see. The explosion totally destroyed the plane and much of the surrounding city block with it. Mecha did a quick scan of the area around the crash site. Not a trace of life was picked up from anywhere. He also didn't detect any signs of life in the surrounding airspace, so they couldn't have bailed out of the plane either. They must have died in the crash.

_Oh no...oh God no! I killed them! All of them! They're all dead! It's all my fault! I wish I could just kill myself right now, or at least cry, but I can't even do that! I'm so powerless! I can't even control my own body!_

Despite Sonic's overly emotional thoughts, Mecha did not react at all to them. New orders were given to Mecha and Metal.

_MISSION COMPLETE. RETURN TO BASE._

Without so much as a pang of guilt (or any emotion at all, for that matter), Mecha turned around and flew straight back to Robotropolis, just as he was ordered.


	23. Epilogue: Regrets

**Epilogue: Regrets**

**September 5th, 2316 – 5:40 AM – Robotropolis, Robotnik Empire**

"Heh heh..." Nail chuckled, looking at the explosion in the distance. He turned to Tails. "Your idea worked like a charm, Tails."

The group of five stood on top of a tall skyscraper near Robotropolis, where Tails and Knuckles had carried Nail, Redrum, and Canma a minute earlier. Just a moment ago, Tails had broken into one of Robotnik's transport planes in a hangar close to the elevator shaft, engaged the autopilot, and then jumped out as it flew out of the complex. Tails was right. Robotnik took their bait, and destroyed the plane while assuming they were using it to escape. Now all of Robotnik's forces were returning back to Robotropolis, mistakenly believing they'd completed their mission.

While Nail, Canma, and Redrum all grinned ear to ear, Knuckles and Tails looked as though they'd just had their hearts ripped out. Tails hadn't even bothered to react to Nail's compliment. Nail decided to try to cheer them up.

"Tails? Knuckles?" he asked. "What's wrong? We got away! We're free now! We won!"

"Won?" Tails asked, casting a glare at Nail. "You call this a win?"

"What do you mean?" Canma asked.

"Sonic!" Knuckles roared, facing Canma, Redrum, and Nail. "Robotnik's still got him, and he's even got a new Metal Sonic operational now! This is no victory! It's nothing but a retreat! If anything, I'd say we've lost! Don't you remember how much destruction the first Metal Sonic caused to Planet Freedom? He nearly destroyed the Land of the Sky! And now Robotnik's going to go try it again, I bet! This time he's even got two metal hedgehogs to do it with!"

Canma, Redrum, and Nail both backed up a bit, apparently realizing the full scope of the situation.

"You know what?" Tails said, as he pointed at the three of them. "This is all your fault too! You were the ones who captured Sonic and brought him into Robotnik's clutches! If it hadn't been for you, none of this would have ever happened!"

"Because of your greed, the entire world's in danger again," Knuckles said, speaking up. "I'm going to kill all of you right now for what you've done!"

Knuckles went into a fighting stance, but Tails put an arm on his shoulder.

"Wait Knuckles," Tails said. "Even with all they've done, we do owe them our lives too. If it weren't for them, none of us would have gotten out of Robotropolis alive."

Knuckles sighed, and straightened back up again into his usual stance.

"I suppose he's right. We'll leave you be, since you did help us get out."

"You better hope we don't meet again though!" Tails shouted, narrowing his eyes at three of them. He then turned to Knuckles. "Let's get out of here Knuckles. We need to hurry up and warn the President about what's going on, and then we need to think of a way to stop Sonic and Metal Sonic."

"Yeah... We've got a lot of work to do, so we don't have time to waste on these idiots."

The echidna and fox moved to the edge of the skyscraper's roof. Tails immediately jumped off and twirled his tails, sending him flying off into the distance. However, before Knuckles followed, he turned around to face Canma, Redrum, and Nail.

"All Sonic ever wanted to do was to keep you and this world safe by fighting Robotnik, and you spat in his face, you greedy bastards. I hope Robotnik sends him and Metal after you first. The world would be a much better place without scum like you."

And with that, Knuckles leaped from the roof and went into a glide, flying off through the air after Tails. Within moments, they were already no more than pinpricks in the distance.

Part of what Knuckles had just said echoed in Nail's head.

"All Sonic ever wanted to do was to keep you and this world safe..."

A memory flashed through Nail's head.

"_Guys! In front of us!" Sonic shouted, pointing to the cliff. _

_Half and Redrum stopped their fighting and looked out through the windshield. The truck was now smashing through the brush on the side of the road, and headed for the edge of the cliff fast. _

"_Oh shit!" Half screamed, as Redrum released his grip on the fox. _

_Half grabbed the wheel again with his free hand and slammed down on the brakes. The vehicle came to a sudden, violent stop, sending Sonic crashing into the bars on the front of his cage. Meanwhile, the other two only lurched forward, due to their seatbelts. Sonic looked up again, and saw that the truck had stopped just a couple feet from the end of the ground. _

"_Phew..." Half sighed. "We gotta stop arguing so much." _

"_Agreed," Redrum said. _

_Half turned back to look at Sonic. _

"_Thanks for watching out for us," he said. _

"_Yeah, you owe me one," Sonic said, with a smile. "What do you say you let me go, since I saved your lives?" _

_Half and Redrum appeared to be contemplating it for a few seconds. They silently stared at each other, and then looked back at Sonic._

"_Terribly sorry Sonic, but I'm afraid this isn't going to change anything," Half said. "It's definitely not worth giving up ten million demens. We're still taking you to our client as we planned." _

"My God..." Nail said, not realizing he was speaking aloud. "What have I done?"

"Nail?" Redrum asked, stepping up to him. "Something wrong?"

The vulpine realized his eyes were beginning to get watery, and he quickly ran a hand over them to get rid of the tears. When he was done, he turned to face Redrum and Canma.

"It's nothing," he said, forcing a blank face. Nail turned to face Redrum. "What do you say we get back home now? I'm exhausted..."

"Go home?" Canma asked, raising an eyebrow. "How far is 'home' for you anyway? I'd think it's a ways off since we're square in the middle of Robotnik's territory here."

"Actually, it's inside this city here," Redrum said. "We figure this is the safest place for a hideout."

For a second, Canma didn't say anything, probably thinking she heard him wrong. Then when she realized she had heard Redrum properly though, she let out a high laugh.

"You're joking, right?"

"Nope...dead serious."

Canma raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of logic is that? This is the most dangerous place on the planet! Nobody in their right mind would come out towards Robotropolis without a really good reason, let alone live here!"

"That's exactly why we have our house here," Redrum replied. "Like you said, nobody comes out here, and that includes all the people who want our heads. We've got many people, on both sides of the law who'd like nothing more than for us to die or rot in jail for all eternity."

Canma looked thoughtful.

"Well...when you put it that way, I guess it sorta makes sense why you'd say its safe here..."

"Yeah...anyway," Redrum said. "Let's head on over there and rest up a bit."

Canma nodded. "Sure."

The two of them turned to Nail.

"All right Nail?" Redrum asked. "Think you can make it?"

Nail didn't respond. He appeared to be staring off into the distance, not really acknowledging Canma's or Redrum's presence. Redrum gave him a little pat on the shoulder. Nail blinked, and suddenly remembered where he was. He nervously smiled.

"Um...y-yeah," he stammered. "Let's go."

He started walking for the stairwell leading down off of the roof. Nail felt the two of them looking at him quizzically, like they didn't know why he was acting this way. He didn't really mind...

Nobody spoke the entire half-hour journey to the hideout. Again though, Nail didn't really mind, since he was busy thinking over this entire episode in his head, thinking about what he should have done, and cursing himself for his greed.

_Why didn't I just let Sonic go for saving my life? None of this would have ever happened if I'd just repaid his kindness. It's all my fault. I feel like the stupidest person alive..._

Without even realizing it, Nail had reached the apartment building he and Redrum used for their hideout. He snapped out of his personal thoughts and glanced up at the ten-story building. It wasn't much to look at, really, considering it had been abandoned for almost six years, until Nail and Redrum took up residence here about a year ago. The brickwork was a dirty white, crumbling in places and covered with grime. Many of the windows were either smashed, or covered up with plywood.

"This is it?" Canma asked. "This dump?"

"Don't worry," Redrum said. "It's just the outer shell, meant to camouflage what's inside."

Nail was only dimly aware of what they were saying, as he walked over towards the glass entrance door. The glass had been smashed through a long time ago, so he just stepped in through the frame. The other two followed after him. Their footsteps caused fountains of dust to gush up into the air, dirtying their shoes. They went up the stairs to the second floor. Nail walked over to the door nearest the stairs, marked Room 201. After unlocking the door with a key, the fox pushed the door aside and switched on the lights.

A room that completely clashed with the rest of the building appeared before them. While everywhere else had been dark and dilapidated, this place looked downright bright and inviting compared to it. The paint covering the walls was a light tan color, while the floor was wood. A powerful personal computer was on a desk in one corner, with boxes and boxes of files on various bounties stacked next to it. Off towards the back of the room was a door leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as a brightly lit kitchenette.

While the city's water and power systems had long since gone down, Nail and Redrum leeched off of Robotnik's power grid for electricity, and they also had a water boiler that could provide fresh water to the room. It didn't provide much water at a time, but it wasn't like they needed a lot. After all, Redrum didn't even need to eat or drink to stay alive.

That's not to say it wasn't an average apartment though. Covering almost every wall and table surface of the den seemed to be an assortment of all types of firearms, from handguns to grenade launchers, from Wild West revolvers to the most advanced laser weaponry stolen from Robotnik's armories. This definitely looked like a place that befitted Nail's and Redrum's interests and job occupations.

"I would be impressed..." Canma spoke up. "If these weren't weapons that filthy humans brought to Planet Freedom. Not to mention I wouldn't set foot in the home of such human lovers like you, but since this is my only port in the storm I'm willing to let it slide this once."

Nobody said anything. Nail silently wandered over to the kitchen in the back of the room. He got a glass from a cabinet and filled it with tap water. As he sipped the water, his ears picked up what Redrum and Canma were speaking about.

"Canma..." Redrum started.

"What is it Redrum?" she asked, as she sat down in a recliner near the door.

"Why'd you come to Robotropolis and help us? I thought you were our enemy."

She sighed a bit.

"Well...as much as I don't like you two for using human weapons, I'd hate the idea of letting a filthy human win even more," she answered.

"What do you mean?" Redrum asked.

"I feel very ashamed for taking on that job to capture Sonic and his friends now, because I found out in the end that I was doing it all for a human," she said. "That would have been bad enough, but it turned out to be the one human I hated the most of all, Robotnik."

"So you wanted to undo what you did for him?" Redrum asked.

"Yes, exactly."

"Well, I'm very glad you did."

Redrum then fell silent for a moment. He spoke to Nail.

"Hey Nail...my batteries are running low. I think Robotnik must have forgotten to recharge me or something while he was fixing us up again. I'm gonna go power down in my room so I can recharge, all right?"

Nail turned around, and silently nodded as he sipped his water. However, he took one glance at Canma, and then looked back at Redrum.

"Hey, do you think it's a good idea to power down though?" Nail asked. "What if Canma is planning to kill us in our sleep or something?"

Canma gave Nail a dark look. "Oh come on Nail! If I had wanted you to die, I would have just let Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic kill you and not bothered to interfere."

"Good point," Redrum said.

Nail had to admit, she was right. A tad frustrated, he gave a little sigh and sat down on a couch in the living room, as he continued to drink his water.

"Well...see you two when I wake up then," Redrum said, as he walked through the door to their bedrooms.

Now Nail and Canma were alone in the room. For a little while, they didn't say anything. Nail simply stared at the wall, with a hard expression on his face. He paid Canma no mind at all, for he was still lost in his thoughts.

_Damnit...if I'd just repaid Sonic for saving my life, we wouldn't even be in this situation right now! Why didn't I just do as he asked? I'm such a goddamn idiot! I'm stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!_

"Nail?" Canma asked, a tone of concern in her voice.

Nail glanced over towards her. She seemed worried. Nail didn't care much about starting a conversation though.

"What do you want?" he snapped, trying to sound as angry as possible.

He hoped that would shut her up. Canma let out a sigh in response, and then kept talking.

"You're mad at me for leaving the battlefield with Nack, right?"

"No...well that's part of it. It's something else too."

"What is it?" she asked. Canma stood up from her chair and moved to stand next to his couch. "Mind if I sit down next to you? Maybe we can talk it over better here."

"No way," Nail said, glaring at her. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Nail, quit pretending," she said, sitting down next to him. She put an arm around behind his shoulder. "I can tell something's wrong just by looking at you."

Nail shook off her arm.

"Why do you care about me so much all of a sudden? We barely even know each other. This is only the first time we've had a proper conversation!"

He then got up right in her face, forcing her to back up a bit.

"Not to mention, up till now, you've been one downright bitch to pretty much everybody you've met. You betrayed Nack, you cut my best friend in half, you ran away with Nack to leave us to get captured in that battle. Hell, you admitted that you rescued us mostly just so you wouldn't have any shame on your head about working for a human."

A glare of anger appeared on Canma's face.

"Why does everyone have to treat me like this for trying to change my ways? The only one who's shown me any sort of thanks for the rescue is Redrum, while you, Tails, and Knuckles have treated me like dirt. Maybe I should have just left you all to die, if this is how you were going to repay me."

She looked away from Nail, closing her eyes and folding up her arms as she sat there. Nail realized what he'd said was pretty rude, after what she'd done for them, and decided to try to make amends.

"Thanks for saving us," he said, sincerely. "I mean it. In all the rush...I just...forgot to say thanks."

"You do?" she said, opening her eyes and looking back at him.

Nail nodded. Canma smiled back, and unexpectedly wrapped her arms around him. Nail was surprised by the move, but he began to realize he liked the feeling of being in her arms. He smiled, and started to hug back. Their tails also curled together. They separated a moment later, still smiling at each other.

"Well...do you mind telling me now about what's bugging you? You'll feel better afterwards."

For a second, Nail didn't know what she was referring to, and then he remembered it was his not repaying Sonic for saving his life. Nail also vaguely thought that this situation reminded him of when Carrie talked to him when he was angry. She had a real knack for calming Nail down. Maybe Canma could do the same thing with how he was angry at himself for capturing Sonic?

"All right," he started. "If you must know, it's like this..."

**At midnight…**

Robotnik grinned maliciously as he looked down from a catwalk. In the room underneath, several repair robots were busily working over a metal table. Upon the table laid the partially disassembled bodies of Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic. The robots were fixing the damage that had been done to them during the test match in the Robot Generator room. Even with all of their power and stamina, sending them out to conquer the world was not something to be taken lightly. He wanted to make sure they were at peak performance before he allowed them to go out and play. That electric shock and that hangar door crushing their bodies had done quite a bit of harm, after all.

As he watched the robots bring over new chest armor for both hedgehog robots, he let his mind wander to how well they'd done in battling Tails, Knuckles, Nail, and Redrum. The results had been most pleasing, and once again he congratulated himself on a job well done. These two robots were by far his greatest creations ever. Had it not been for Mecha Sonic accidentally breaking down the door leading out of the room, the four opponents would have been finished off there. Not that it really mattered... Soon after they escaped the room, they'd stolen a plane that had been brought down in very short order, again due to his two new hedgehog robots. So either way, the test was a complete success.

Robotnik looked out a nearby window, across the city. He could still faintly see the oily smoke trailing up from the plane's wreckage, despite the darkness. A grim smile spread out across his face, as he imagined the melted, twisted bodies of his greatest adversaries still trapped inside the plane, all burnt to a crisp. The last obstacle to his plan had been removed, so now he could go full steam ahead with his plans to conquer Planet Freedom once again.

Robotnik had been viewed as something of a joke lately, due to how often he was thwarted by Sonic and his friends. But now, since all three of them had been disposed of, that was no longer an issue. It was time to show people just what he thought of being labeled as "egg belly", or "egg head" or whatever other name they could think of that involved the word "egg."

Again, Robotnik smiled, staring down at his two creations. He noticed their eyes were faintly glowing.

"You two will be my keys to conquering this planet..." he started, raising his hands a little for emphasis.

Robotnik was quiet for a moment, but then his grin spread even wider across his face. Why stop with just this planet, now that his greatest enemies had fallen? The possibilities... They were endless... He began speaking again.

"Come to think of it, once Planet Freedom has fallen, I should go to other planets that humans have colonized too! They will fall one by one beneath the new might I have from you, until Earth itself is mine! I will control the entire Earth's empire!"

He reared back and broke out into laughter, and it was so loud it could almost be heard in every corner of the base. When he was done, he looked back down at the robots.

_Heh...well I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Planet Freedom must fall first, after all. I should start making other preparations for my world conquest._

Robotnik smiled again, and then he hurried to the Control Room. He was giddy the entire way, knowing that this time he was virtually guaranteed victory. Now that Sonic was in his pocket as well as the new Metal Sonic, the world would quickly fall before him...

**The end of Freedom Series 4: The Last Obstacle**

**To be continued in Freedom Series 5: The Wrong Side**

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**I thought I'd try something different this time around, and have the good guys be the losers instead of the bad guys. It would get boring if Sonic and his friends always came out on top in the end of my fanfics, don't you think? I just hope this isn't too big of a cliffhanger for you. **

**Sorry to say it, but you're gonna have to wait until Freedom Series 5 to find out how the good guys deal with Robotnik's latest bid for world domination, and how they're going to deal with Sonic fighting for the wrong side now. Not to mention, there seems to be a little bit of chemistry starting between Canma and Nail… **

**Anyway, I'd like to thank Stryker20 and Tocole for being consistent readers of my fics. Without you guys I'd have a lot less reviews on my stories. **

**I'd also like to thank Luigi and Yoli Riona for coming out and reading my storis whenever I bug them to do it XD**

**And lastly I'd like to thank MTP for providing the original inspiration for me to start writing stories. Without him, I wouldn't be here today. **

**Here's to hoping Freedom Series 5 will top Freedom Series 4, and that it won't take too long for me to finish it. **

**If you guys are interested though, I have an idea for how we can pass the time. This fanfic was actually based somewhat upon the first fanfic I ever wrote, which is titled Sonic Assassin. I made it in the summer of 2003 though, so the quality level is pretty low compared to what you're reading today. Not to mention, Nail is more of a Mary Sue in Sonic Assassin than he is now, and it's based in the SatAM universe instead of the movie universe too. But if you like, I can post that up chapter by chapter as we're waiting for me to finish Freedom Series 5. What do you say? **


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